Roman Catholicism 



IN THE 



United States. 

"The Church of Rome, 
Mixing two governments that ill assort, 
Hath missed her footing, fallen into the mire, 
And there herself and burden much defiled? 1 

Dante. 

"Popery is a double thing to deal with, and claims a tuofold power, 
ecclesiastical and political, both usurped, and the one supporting the 
other?''— Milton. 




OF COfttf^S. 
1879. 



NEW YORK 

THE AUTHORS' PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1879 



The Library 
op Congress 

washington 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 
THE AUTHORS' PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Statement of the Subject 5 

CHAPTER II. 
Elements of National Life 30 

CHAPTER III. 
The Spirit of Romanism 53 

CHAPTER IV. 
Roman Catholicism and Modern Civilization 76 

CHAPTER V. 

Nature of the Conflict between Romanism and Prot- 
estantism 105 

CHAPTER VI. 

Our National Ideal, and its Relations to Romanism 

and Protestantism 137 

CHAPTER VII. 
Concluding Remarks 166 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES- 



CHAPTER I. 

STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 

Without wishing to revive those religious 
prejudices and animosities which have been pro- 
ductive of so much harm in the past, I cannot 
help thinking that the time has come when we 
ought to turn our attention to Roman Catholi- 
cism, and, in the light of a candid examination, 
endeavor to estimate as intelligently as possi- 
ble the consequences which are likely to result 
from its increasing power and influence in this 
country. 

Commencing our examination of the subject 
under a due sense of that liberal spirit of the 
present day which has considerably modified 
what are commonly known as religious differ- 

5 



6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ences, it may seem useless to devote any time to 
the discussion of a question so apparently unim- 
portant as the growth of a religious denomination. 

But unnecessary as the examination into re- 
ligious differences is on general principles, there 
is in the present instance a deep foundation in 
fact for the discussion. Within certain limits 
it is undoubtedly safe to leave differences of re- 
ligious belief to take care of themselves. But 
we sadly misunderstand the laws of human de- 
velopment if we suppose that a vast and over- 
shadowing system like Roman Catholicism can 
be safely passed by in silence and unconcern. 
What applies to doctrinal differences among 
Christians does not apply to Roman Catholi- 
cism. In point of fact, the Roman Catholic 
Church aims at a spiritual and temporal sover- 
eignty which separates it in kind no less than in 
degree from other bodies of the Christian faith. 
Recognizing no equal, and regarding all forms of 
Protestantism as so many phases of infidelity, 
Roman Catholicism comes before us, not as a 
system claiming to be approved according to its 
merits, but as a system claiming to be on all 
subjects a supreme and infallible judge. To 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



7 



regard its growth in the same manner as we re- 
gard the growth of the different Protestant 
churches, is to fall into a fatal error. As far as 
the interests of modern civilization are con- 
cerned, it is a matter of small consequence 
whether the Episcopalians, the Methodists, the 
Presbyterians, or the Baptists are in the ascend- 
ency. 

But the case is very different with Roman 
Catholicism. From the nature of its principles, 
and the imperious character of its claims, Roman 
Catholicism is separated from other religious 
denominations in a manner so clear and unmis- 
takable as to show at once the absurdity of 
attempting to apply to it the same method of 
treatment. 

As Milton said of it, " Popery is a double 
thing to deal with, and claims a twofold power, 
ecclesiastical and political, both usurped, and 
the one supporting the other/ ' 

And yet manifest as are the dangers conse- 
quent on the growth of Romanism, we have 
somehow fallen into a state of torpor which, if 
allowed to continue, will surely end in the most 
disastrous consequences. 



8 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Grossly deceiving ourselves as to the influence 
which Roman Catholicism is capable of exerting 
on our national life, we have shut our eyes to 
facts, and for a healthy liberality have substi- 
tuted supineness and a false sense of security. 
Of course, we are, from the nature of our in- 
stitutions, bound to respect the rights of Roman 
Catholics, and to allow them full liberty of wor- 
ship. 

Heaven forbid that we should ever descend to 
those depths of religious bigotry which have 
stained the records of other nations. But in 
order that we may realize the dangers attending 
the present growth of Romanism, it is by no 
means necessary that we should degenerate into 
bigotry or ignorant prejudice. To any one who 
studies the spirit of our institutions it is obvious 
that the narrowness of bigotry is utterly incom- 
patible with those broad and comprehensive 
principles which form the very bases of our na- 
tional existence. 

Let us in every possible way eschew bigotry. 
But in doing so, let us remember that this does 
not necessarily involve the abandonment of cer- 
tain questions which are inseparably connected 



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9 



with our responsibilities as a nation. As the 
Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson has forcibly re- 
marked in his introduction to Mr. Gladstone's 
essay on " Italy and Her Church " That a 
man is a citizen prevents not that he be also a 
Christian or an Infidel, a Roman Catholic or a 
Protestant ; and if he be a genuine Christian or 
a genuine Infidel, a real Roman Catholic or a 
real Protestant, the fact will work itself out in his 
citizenship. . . . Vaticanism is alive in America 
as in Europe. It has just crowned its American 
heirarchy with the gift of a red hat to a gentle- 
man of singular modesty and good sense. It 
has chosen shrewdly, as it always does in such 
cases. Our first American ' Prince of the 
Church' does not frighten the most jealous Re- 
publican. This is as it should be. We must 
be accustomed slowly to the ideas involved in 
the gift." Above and beyond what are com- 
monly regarded as the formative principles of 
our national life, there are invisible spiritual 
forces which we cannot safely omit in framing 
our estimate of the present, and in making our 
calculations for the future. And it is precisely 
in this connection that the present growth of 



10 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Roman Catholicism is of such great importance. 
We may decry the discussion of the subject if we 
please. But we cannot check the current of 
those consequences which inevitably flow from 
the increasing power of Romanism. 

Because it is a mighty spiritual force it affects 
in a thousand ways all who come within the 
circle of its influence. Because it is a dangerous 
ecclesiastical system, confounding the things that 
are God's with the things that are Caesar's, it 
necessarily militates against a free and healthy 
spiritual growth. 

In some respects Roman Catholicism undoubt- 
edly has its advantages. But to a candid obser- 
ver these are more than counterbalanced by the 
evils which inhere in it as a system, and which 
are, in view of its present growth, the real points 
demanding our consideration. Looking back 
over the pages of history, he must be either igno- 
rantly or wilfully blind who will venture the as- 
sertion that the Church of Rome has been pro- 
ductive of no good in the world. 

To attempt an argument such as this is to set 
facts at defiance, and to substitute the sweeping 
assertions of ignorance for the careful and deli- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



II 



cate analysis which the circumstances of the case 
demand. 

Whatever Roman Catholicism is or has been, 
it cannot be truthfully charged that it has accom- 
plished no good results ; and it is therefore idle 
for us to attempt to meet it on this ground. 
What we ought to do, and what the writer pro- 
poses to accomplish in the following pages, is to 
admit the good that has been performed in cer- 
tain directions, but at the same time to expose 
the evils which, like rank weeds, overshadow and 
choke the flowers which occasionally bloom 
within the pale of the Roman Catholic Church. 
By all means let us concede to Romanism all 
that it can justly claim. But let us guard against 
the error of supposing that a little good can 
compensate for a great deal of evil. Under all 
circumstances let us remember that, although 
Roman Catholicism has certain features to rec- 
ommend it, it is a duty which we owe to our- 
selves and to posterity to protest against evils 
and errors which strike at the very bases of 
civilization and progress. Nor do we, in mak- 
ing these concessions to Romanism, deny the 
fact that in the superabundance of our liberality 



12 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



we have fostered an evil which threatens us 
with many serious consequences. It is one 
thing to recognize that Roman Catholicism, bad 
as it is, is not without some few redeeming 
qualities ; it is quite another thing to shut our 
eyes to issues which are daily growing in im- 
portance, and which must sooner or later be 
realized and settled. Indeed, it is pertinent to 
our subject to remark that it is precisely this 
spirit of indifference growing out of liberality 
which causes the present rapid growth of Ro- 
manism in Protestant countries ; thus demon- 
strating the fact that wherever the liberal spirit 
of Protestantism exists under its noblest forms, 
Roman Catholicism is always at hand to make 
the most of its opportunities. 

As examples of this we need only to glance at 
the present increase of Romanism in England, 
Holland, and Switzerland, thence passing to 
our own country. In regard to the rapidity 
with which Roman Catholicism has increased in 
this country, it may perhaps surprise some 
drowsy Protestants to learn that at the present 
time the Roman Catholics are, according to an 
eminent Roman Catholic authority, richer than 



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13 



any other religious denomination in the United 
States. In the words of this writer : " A hun- 
dred years ago there were not more than twenty- 
five priests in the United States ; in 1800 there 
were supposed to be forty; in 1830 the number 
had risen to two hundred and thirty-two, and 
in 1848 to eight hundred and ninety. In ten 
years from 1862 to 1872, the number of priests 
was more than doubled, having grown from two 
thousand three hundred and seventeen to four 
thousand eight hundred and nine. ... In 
1875 there were, according to official statistics of 
the various dioceses, five thousand and seventy- 
four priests, twelve hundred and seventy-three 
ecclesiastical students, and six thousand five hun- 
dred and twenty-eight churches and chapels in 
the United States. There were also, at the 
same time, thirty-three theological seminaries, 
sixty-three colleges, five hundred and fifty-seven 
academies and select schools, sixteen hundred 
and forty-five parochial schools, two hundred 
and fourteen asylums, and ninety-six hospitals 
under the authority and control of the Catholic 
hierarchy of this country. ... In 1790 
there was not a convent in the United States ; 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



in 180O there were but two ; to-day there are 
more than three hundred and fifty for women, 
and there are probably one hundred and thirty 
for men. . . . The value of the property 
owned by the Church in this country, as given 
in the census reports, was, in 1850, $9,256,758 ; 
in i860, $26,774,119 ; and in 1870, $60,985,565. 
The ratio of increase from 1850 to i860 was 189 
per cent, and from i860 to 1870, 128 per cent ; 
while the aggregate wealth of the whole country 
during the same periods increased in the former 
decade only 125 per cent, and in the latter only 
86 per cent. In 1850 the value of the church 
property of the Baptists, the Episcopalians, the 
Methodists, and the Presbyterians was greater 
than that of the Catholics, but in 1870 we had 
taken the second rank in point of wealth, and to- 
day we think there is no doubt but that we hold 
the first. " 1 In this connection it is also worthy 
of remark that the Catholic Directory for 1879 
makes the number of Roman Catholics at pres- 
ent in the United States 6,375,630, thus show- 

1 Essays and Reviews. By Rt. Rev. J. L. Spalding, D.D., 
Bishop of Peoria. The Catholic Publication Society, New 
York. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



l 5 



ing an increase of 4,075,630 over i860, and 
4,942,280 over 1850. 

Notwithstanding the formidable character of 
these figures, it is, of course, to be admitted 
that as long as Protestantism remains healthy 
and vigorous, there is not the least likelihood 
that Roman Catholicism will gain a complete 
ascendency. But as any one can see, there is a 
great difference between a wild alarm having no 
foundation in fact, and an intelligent prevision 
which duly provides for approaching danger. 
While it is certainly true that the present posi- 
tion of Protestantism is in a general sense im- 
pregnable, it is no less true that the above fig- 
ures furnish ample evidence as to the growing 
power of Roman Catholicism, at the same time 
that they very strongly suggest the importance 
of the consequences involved in such growth. 
Strong in the consciousness of its strength, Prot- 
estantism can easily afford to laugh at the 
thunders of the Vatican. But it must never be 
forgotten that the sense of security which war- 
rants us in treating with contempt the preten- 
sions of the Roman pontiff does not warrant us 



1 6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



in allowing the consciousness of strength to de- 
generate into indifference and inaction. 

To some extent it is perhaps natural that we 
should fail to understand Romanism in its true 
character. But there is surely no reason why 
we should escape the penalty of wrong-doing 
because we happen to err through natural tend- 
ency. Because the existence of " a free Church 
in a free State* ' has been with us a matter of in- 
heritance, it does not therefore follow that we 
can sink into an apathetic condition without 
reaping the consequences of our folly. While 
we may safely congratulate ourselves on the 
fact that the causes which have induced Ger- 
many and Italy to pass certain laws for the pur- 
pose of protecting themselves against the en- 
croachments of ecclesiastical power are precisely 
the conditions with which we as a nation are 
least familiar, it is most unwise to congratulate 
ourselves on the possession of a sluggish indif- 
ference which is contented to rub its eyes occa- 
sionally, and then relapse into its previous state 
of drowsiness and torpidity. It is true that we 
have never been brought face to face, as Euro- 
pean governments have been, with the enormous 



IN 'THE UNITED STATES. 



17 



and overshadowing pretensions of Roman Ca- 
tholicism. But this temporary exemption does 
not in the least warrant us in supposing that 
there is any dissimilarity between the conditions 
which govern Romanism in Europe and the con- 
ditions which govern Romanism in this country. 
Here, as in Europe, there is an inherent antag- 
onism between Romanism and Protestantism 
which must inevitably produce its results. It is 
not in the nature of things that the two forces 
can exist side by side without sooner or later 
coming into collision ; and it is therefore the 
merest folly for us to suppose that we can, 
by a course of indifference, successfully evade 
evils which have taxed to their utmost the wis- 
dom and energy of other nations. 

Indeed, so radical is the antagonism between 
Roman Catholicism and what we are accustomed 
to regard as Protestant civilization, that it is 
impossible to regard the claims of Romanism 
otherwise than as an audacious attempt to en- 
slave the human mind and to put the clock of 
the world back several hundred years. To those 
unacquainted with the real character of Roman 
Catholicism this language may seem unnecessa- 



28 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



rily harsh, but it is nevertheless fully war- 
ranted by the facts of the case. Setting aside 
as worthless the work performed by Protest- 
antism, and setting itself up as the superior 
of all civil authority, the Church of Rome places 
itself in direct opposition to those tendencies 
which we very properly regard as the natural 
and healthy outgrowth of modern civilization. In 
fact, the claims of Romanism, when properly 
understood, admit of no limitation whatever. 
They are simply absolute, and amenable to no 
human law. According to Cardinal Manning, 
" The Church itself is the divine witness, teach- 
er judge of the revelation intrusted to it. There 
exists no other. There is no tribunal to which 
appeal from the Church can lie. There is no co- 
ordinate witness, teacher, or judge, who can re- 
vise or criticise or test the teaching of the 
Church. It is sole and alone in the world. 
. . . It belongs to the Church alone to determine 
the limits of its own infallibility v M 1 

Certainly this is extraordinary language for 
the nineteenth century. Nor can we safely 
dismiss it with a derisive smile, as though 
1 The Vatican Council and its Definitions. 



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*9 



it were mere " sound and fury signifying 
nothing." Coming from such an eminent 
authority, and expressing, as it undoubt- 
edly does, the real spirit of Romanism, this 
language possesses an importance which we 
cannot safely despise. Of course Cardinal 
Manning's definition does not prove the power 
of the Roman Catholic Church to enforce its 
doctrines ; but it certainly does prove that we 
are threatened by an imperious ecclesiastical 
despotism which denies the right of existence to 
those principles which we wisely regard as the 
safeguards of freedom and intellectual develop- 
ment. 

In further illustration of the dangerous tend- 
ency of Roman Catholicism, let us, however, 
look to some other authorities which may be 
reasonably supposed to exercise great influence 
in forming the character of Roman Catholic 
thought in this country. 

According to one of these authorities, " We 
do not acknowledge that, in a State in which the 
proper relations between Church and State exist, 
the clergy are amenable for their conduct to 
the civil courts, or come under their jurisdiction. 



20 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



If guilty of offences or crimes punishable by the 
civil courts, they can be tried and punished, 
not in the civil courts, but in the ecclesiastical. 
The State has not supreme legislative authority, 
and civil courts which contravene the law of God 
do not bind the conscience ; and whether they 
do or not contravene that law, the Churchy not 
the State or its courts , is the supreme judge. 9 ' 1 

According to another authority, " A Catholic 
must not only believe what the Church now 
proposes to his belief, but be ready to believe 
whatever she may hereafter propose. And he 
must, therefore , be ready to give up any or 
all of his probable opinions so soon as they 
are condemned and proscribed by a compe- 
tent authority. . . . Each individual must 
receive the faith and law from the Church of 
which he is a member by baptism, with un- 
questioning submission and obedience of the in- 
tellect and the will. Authority and obligation 
are correlative in nature and extent. We have 
no right to ask reasons of the Church, any more 
than of Almighty God, as a preliminary to our 
submission. We are to take with unquestioning 
1 New York Tablet, April 8th, 1871. 



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2 I 



docility whatever instruction the Church gives 
us." 1 

In the paper first quoted the following state- 
ment also appears in answer to an assertion 
made by the New York Herald that there are 
thousands of Catholics who do not place Rome 
above the United States : " The Herald is be- 
hind the times, and appears not yet to have 
learned that the ' thousands of Catholics ' it 
speaks of are simply no Catholics at all, if it 
does not misrepresent them. Gallicanism is a 
heresy, and he who denies the papal supremacy 
in the government of the universal Church is 
as far from being a Catholic as he is who de- 
nies the Incarnation or the Real Presence. The 
Church is more than country, and fealty to the 
creed God teaches and enjoins through her is more 
than patriotism. We must obey God rather 
than man." 2 

Certainly if this language means anything it 
indicates a settled purpose on the part of the 
Roman Catholic Church to revive, if possible, 
the ecclesiastical tyranny of the dark ages. In 

1 The Catholic World, August, 1871. 

2 New York Tablet, November 16th, 1872. 



22 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



fact, it must be a strange perversity of reasoning 
which refuses to see in these statements a direct 
and deadly antagonism toward those principles 
which constitute the conditio sine qua non of our 
national life. Showing, as they do, the real 
spirit of Romanism, these statements furnish 
the most conclusive reasons why we should re- 
gard with apprehension the present growth and 
aggressive character of the Roman Catholic 
Church. In dwelling thus on the dangerous 
tendencies of Romanism, it is, of course, to be 
admitted that we ought to draw a broad line of 
distinction between the unsuspecting confidence 
of the Roman Catholic laity and the deliber- 
ate scheming of the Roman Catholic priesthood. 
Most undoubtedly this difference does exist ; 
and we ought unhesitatingly to recognize it. 
But in point of fact, a discrimination of this kind 
makes no difference as to the real question at 
issue. In yielding their obedience to the teach- 
ings of the Church, it is more than likely that 
the great majority of Roman Catholics have no 
conception of the vast range of those conse- 
quences which are inseparably connected with 
the unrestricted power of the priesthood. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



2 3 



With them it is a duty to obey the Church, 
and they obey accordingly. In other words, 
no matter how monstrous the doctrine, or how 
great the sacrifice of freedom involved, Roman 
Catholics are bound to accept the decisions of the 
Church with unquestioning submission. Free- 
dom of choice and discretionary power are out 
of the question. 

It is true we may occasionally meet with a 
few members of the Roman Catholic Church who 
still cling to the spirit of Gallicanism ; but we 
must never forget that, according to the present 
interpretation of the Roman Catholic Church, 
" Gallicanism is a heresy," and therefore cannot 
under any consideration be countenanced. 

" The people need governing, and must be 
governed. . . . They must have a master " x 
says one of the ablest Roman Catholic writers. 
The master here referred to is, of course, the 
Roman pontiff, as the author shows by his re- 
mark — " In this sense, we wish this country to 
come under the Pope of Rome " 

Says another Roman Catholic writer : " The 
Church is certainly intolerant in matters of 
1 Brownson's Essays. 



24 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



doctrine. True ; and we glory in it ! . . . 
The Catholic Church alone, in the midst of so 
many different sects, avers the possession of ab- 
solute truth, out of which there cannot be true 
Christianity. She alone has the right to be, she 
alone must be y intolerant. She alone will and 
must say, as she has said through all ages in her 
councils, ' If any one saith or believeth contrary 
to what I teach, which is truth, let him be Anath- 

y f > i 

ema. 

Or, to put the subject somewhat differently, 
it really seems as if it is impossible for any one 
in the present day to be a consistent Roman 
Catholic, and at the same time preserve suffi- 
cient rational freedom to prevent himself from 
degenerating into an automaton to be moved ac- 
cording to the will and pleasure of the Church 
of Rome. 

Nor is it enough for us to regard these imperi- 
ous attempts on the part of the Roman Catholic 
Church merely as innovations introduced by the 
Ultramontane party during the pontificate of 
Pius IX. Instead of these audacious claims be- 
ing extrinsic to Roman Catholicism, they are 

1 Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today. By Mgr. 
Segur. 



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25 



really an integral part of the whole system, and 
have again and again in the history of the world 
shown themselves in their true colors. Long 
before Pius IX. was declared infallible, we find 
Gregory VII. making the claim that the Pope, 
as " the representative of God on earth/' is en- 
titled to the highest and most powerful position 
on earth. 

" God is a spirit," says Gregory ; " he rules 
matter ; thus the spiritual is above the temporal 
power. The Pope is the representative of God 
on earth ; he should, then, govern the world. 
To him alone pertain infallibility and universal- 
ity ; all men are submitted to his laws, and he 
can only be judged by God ; he ought to wear 
imperial ornaments ; people and kings should 
kiss his feet ; Christians are irrevocably submit- 
ted to his orders ; they should murder their 
princes, fathers, and children if he command it ; 
no council can be declared universal without the 
orders of the Pope ; no book can be received as 
canonical without his authority ; finally, no 
good or evil exists but in what he has condemned 
or approved." 1 It is true that Gregory attempt- 
1 Cormenin, vol. i, page 377. 



26 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ed to justify his position by falling back on the 
pseudo-Isidorian Decretals ; whereas Pius IX. 
surrounded himself with the authority of an ecu- 
menical council. In both instances, however, 
notwithstanding the unlikeness in some respects, 
the underlying principle of ambition is the 
same. Different as are the methods of Gregory 
and Pius IX. , it is not too much to say that when 
we carry them out to their logical consequences 
they both end in the abominable sentiment 
falsely attributed to Boniface, the apostle of 
Germany — viz., " Even if a pope is so bad that 
he drags down whole nations to hell with him in 
troops, nobody can rebuke him ; for he who 
judges all can be judged of no man/' 1 Unac- 
• customed as we are to be brought face to face 
with the real principles of Roman Catholicism, 
these statements respecting the audacity of the 
Roman Catholic Church will at first sight seem 
almost incredible. Notwithstanding their start- 
ling character, it is, however, impossible to un- 
derstand Roman Catholicism without them. 
Knowing the value of apparent humility, there 
is no likelihood that the Roman Catholic 

1 H Janus," page 92. 



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27 



priests will ever reveal these characteristics in 
their ordinary intercourse with the world. But 
it is well for us to remember that there is such a 
thing as hypocrisy in this world. According to 
Shakespeare : 

" Smooth runs the water, where the brook is deep ; 
And in his simple show he harbors treason. 
The fox barks not, when he would steal the lamb.'* 

Measuring Romanism by the qualities of man- 
liness and courage which inhere in Protestant- 
ism, we mistake the appearance for the reality, 
and thus fall into the habit of giving to Roman 
Catholicism those advantages which it most de- 
sires. Ignoring the past history of Romanism, 
we allow our indifference to become a most pow- 
erful agency for diffusing the doctrines of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

In view of these facts, it therefore seems to 
me the time has come when we ought to look 
the question of Roman Catholicism fairly in the 
face. If the Roman Catholic Church is an un- 
mixed blessing, by all means let us do every- 
thing in our power to assist its growth. If, on 
the other hand, it is a dangerous system of per- 
nicious doctrine, and an enemy to liberty and 



28 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



civilization, it surely is our manifest duty to 
awake to a sense of our responsibility, and pro- 
tect as far as possible those interests which are 
threatened by the growth of an imperious eccle- 
siastical tyranny. 

Much as we may respect some of the Roman 
Catholic priests for their breadth of learning, 
their earnestness, and purity of life, we cannot 
shut our eyes to the fact that the good intentions 
of these men are powerless to resist that stream 
of Ultramontanism which is daily increasing its 
strength from a thousand well-arranged tributa- 
ries. In point, of fact, it is the Ultramontane 
party which at present dictates the policy of 
Rome ; it is through the insidious measures of 
the Ultramontane party that the conquest of 
this country is looked for ; it is 7 consequently 
with the teachings and tendencies of Ultramon- 
tanism that we are primarily concerned. Nor 
is there any reason why the discussion of this 
subject should be conducted in a euphemistic 
manner so as to avoid wounding the religious 
sensibilities of some of our best citizens. It 
would be strange indeed if, in these days of 
general enlightenment, one could not attack the. 
evils of a system without giving mortal offence 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



29 



to all who happen to have been born under the 
shadow of its name and influence. Even at the 
risk of unintentionally offending, it is, however, 
our duty to state the facts, and draw our con- 
clusions accordingly. If there is any truth in 
the proposition which regards Roman Catholi- 
cism as a danger which we shall be compelled 
sooner or later to deal with, it certainly is not a 
waste of time or an act of ignorant prejudice to 
investigate carefully the tendencies of the pres* 
ent, with the view of estimating the probabilities 
of the future. In other words, if the diffusion 
of knowledge among us means anything, it surely 
ought to warn us against the dangers growing 
out of indifference founded on an exaggerated 
self-sufficiency, at the same time that our gen- 
eral enlightenment ought to point out to us the 
necessity of our being, not, " like more simple 
people, to judge of an ill principle in govern- 
ment by an actual grievance/ ' but to " antic- 
ipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the 
grievance by the badness of the principle/ ' 

In the higher realms of our intellectual and 
moral life, no less than in the sphere of our 
every-day experience, prevention is always bet- 
ter than cure. 



CHAPTER II. 



ELEMENTS OF NATIONAL LIFE. 

HAVING stated in brief outline some of the 
reasons which have influenced me in writing this 
work, it seems necessary that we should, at the 
threshold of our investigation, understand the 
importance properly belonging to those influ- 
ences which, although for the most part unseen 
by the casual observer, are nevertheless con- 
stantly entering into and determining the char- 
acter of our individual and national life. 

Accustomed as we are to measure our great- 
ness by the standard of material prosperity, we 
are apt to overlook the intimate connection 
which necessarily exists between spiritual forces 
and the formation of character. But the fact of 
this connection no less remains. Indeed, it is 
not too much to say that inwoven as these spirit- 
ual forces are into the warp and woof of human- 
ity, it is impossible to conceive a condition of 
human life in which their action is not visible 
and paramount in influence. 

3° 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM. 



31 



Moving silently, but nevertheless surely, along 
the line of history, spiritual influences are like 
the links in one mighty chain, the beginning of 
which reaches far back into the obscurity of the 
past, and the end of which stretches far into 
that mighty future which shall finally solve the 
enigma of human life. Because we are at pres- 
ent overshadowed by what are known as the 
material interests of society, we may forget that 
there are such things as spiritual forces. But 
we cannot, in thus worshipping the triumphs of 
physical science, ignore those conditions which 
relate to man as a spiritual being. 

From the essential spirituality of our nature, 
we are constantly surrounded by a circle of in- 
fluences, the importance of which it is impossi- 
ble to overestimate. Ecsape them we cannot ; 
submit to them we must. And thus it is that it 
seems to me highly important that we should 
understand what we mean by the term National 
Life. In using the term do we merely employ 
it as a vague and meaningless expression ? or do 
we regard it as expressing a profoundly sig- 
nificant fact, the importance of which we can 
never expect to exhaust, and the significance 



32 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



of which we can never hope to fully compre- 
hend ? 

In other words, in dealing with the questions 
growing out of our national existence, do we be- 
lieve in the controlling power of fortuitous cir- 
cumstance ? or do we believe in the supremacy 
and universality of law ? If, according to one 
view, we believe that the world is governed by 
what is commonly known as chance, we at once 
remove the subject from the sphere of reason- 
able discussion to the realm of mere conjecture ; 
thus denying that there is any value in the cau- 
tion or prevision based upon a knowledge of the 
relation between causes and their effects. If, 
however, according to the other view, we be- 
lieve that our national life is the result of cer- 
tain principles operating under the dominion of 
law, it is equally evident that we cannot too 
carefully examine the tendency of those influ- 
ences which are gradually shaping the undercur- 
rent of our intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. 
It is the silent forces of nature which do most 
toward preserving and perpetuating life upon 
this earth. And so it is in the larger and higher 
world of human thought and feeling. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



33 



In the one, as in the other, it is strictly true 
that 

<c A pebble in the streamlet scant 

Has turned the course of many a river ; 
A dew-drop on the infant plant 
Has warped the giant oak for ever." 

In fact, could we follow every influence as it 
enlarges and extends its range of action, it is 
not an exaggeration to say that we would be lit- 
erally amazed at the power of what seem to us 
the commonest trifles. 

What does not make a noise we are accus- 
tomed to treat as of no consequence, whereas 
the truth is exactly the reverse. In the realm 
of human activity, no less than in the domain of 
nature, there is far greater power in those noise- 
less forces which are always operating like so 
many invisible agencies whose business is to 
shape the destiny of the world. Under all cir- 
cumstances they are with us. Nor can we ever 
hope to set aside that inexorable law which has 
decreed that there can be no such thing -as isola- 
tion or dissociation in human life. Owing to 
the complex character of modern civilization, it 
may seem almost incredible that there is such a 
thing as a principle of unity underlying society 



34 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



and giving^ to every influence a marvellously 
wide range of action. Notwithstanding appear- 
ances, such is, however, the fact. 

Whether we derive our evidences from the ex- 
tensive range of phenomena with which sociol- 
ogy deals, or confine ourselves to the subjects 
r more immediately under the eye of every intel- 
ligent observer, there is nothing more evident 
than the fact that human life is one vast network 
of influences constantly acting and reacting on 
each other. 

Indeed, there is a sense, and that a very im- 
portant one, in which the records of history are 
but so many attestations of the interaction of 
spiritual forces and their influence on the world's 
progress. 

Eliminate this idea from the pages of history, 
and we are completely at a loss to understand 
many of those important movements which have 
convulsed society and shaken the foundations of 
the civilized world. As we survey the history 
of the world, we are frequently met by the 
solemn fact that nations, like individuals, have 
their brief periods of existence, and then pass 
away. At one moment " they come careering 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



35 



past us, the very emblems of resistless power." 
At another time "they subside and are lost 
among the succeeding waves/ ' So it has been 
from the beginning of time ; and so it is to-day. 
The nation that to-day exults in the strength of 
its youth may in a comparatively short time 
feel the gradual approach of those declining years 
which warn us that the end is not far off. And 
yet there are certain conditions connected with 
national life which indicate that nations have 
souls as well as individuals. The man who re- 
flects seriously on his own nature and the con- 
ditions by which he is surrounded, cannot help 
feeling that there is and must be such a thing as 
continuity of life. The awful solemnity of 
death causes him to shudder at times, but he 
does not allow his nobler hopes and his higher 
aspirations to be crushed by what may prove to 
be a blessing in disguise. Short as his period 
of earthly existence may prove to be, it is im- 
possible to resist the promptings of that inward 
monitor which asserts its superiority to death, 
and which as forcibly declares that there are in 
the lives of nations certain principles or spiritual 
forces which move on to their determined end, 



36 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



notwithstanding the passing away of those out- 
ward conditions which a superficial estimate is 
apt to regard as the real life. 

In other words, it is this underlying principle 
of spiritual law which gives such solemn mean- 
ing to the idea of that serene and beautiful 
genius which the ancients believed ruled the 
fate of nations ; it is this indestructibility of 
moral principle, grounded on the deep spiritual- 
ity of national no less than individual conscious- 
ness, which gives to the idea of a stern Nemesis 
the importance which properly belongs to it — this 
Nemesis which " crushes everything immoral, 
and obtains the ultimate triumph of the race by 
the sacrifice of everything which resists the 
moral laws of the world." Nor can we dwell 
too forcibly on this idea of an eternal Nemesis 
following always in the footsteps of nations, and 
avenging with certainty every violation of those 
laws which govern humanity. 

Omitting all other considerations, the keeping 
of this idea before our minds tends to impress 
us with the importance of that inevitable 
sequence between cause and effect which under- 
lies spiritual as well as material phenomena. It 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



37 



is true there is that in the diversified and appar- 
ently irregular character of human conditions 
which seems to contradict the argument in favor 
of the supremacy and universality of law. But 
this is, after all, an appearance only ; and as 
such must not be permitted to influence us in 
estimating our position under the conditions 
which guide and control the bark of human 
destiny. According to Bryant : 

" These struggling tides of life, that seem 
In wayward, aimless course to tend, 
Are eddies of the mighty stream 
That rolls to its appointed end. ,, 

Strangely confused as human life appears, 
there are certain general principles which we 
can always count upon, certain undeviating fac- 
tors which tend toward the vindication of law, 
certain irreversible conditions which render it 
imperative on nations no less than on individuals 
to test the quality of their spiritual life. 

Touching on one side of our nature the mate- 
rial world and the conditions of physical life, 
and touching on the other side of our nature the 
spiritual world and the conditions of psychical 
life, it is impossible for an individual or a nation 



38 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



to isolate itself from the conditions of the spirit- 
ual atmosphere by which it happens to be sur- 
rounded. In fact, it is law which governs the 
world of mind no less than the world of matter, 
and therefore it is that in any attempt to deal 
with a subject such as the one embodied in this 
work, it is highly important that we should 
realize clearly the meaning of those influences 
which Roman Catholicism is gradually dissemi- 
nating among us. If, as history and experience 
solemnly proclaim, there is no such thing as iso- 
lation in the realm of human affairs, it requires 
no extraordinary effort to discover the impor- 
tance which attaches to the considerations grow- 
ing out of the present attitude of Romanism. 

As an answer to this question it avails noth- 
ing to fall back on the common assertion that as 
this is essentially a Protestant country, it can- 
not be seriously affected by the growth of 
Roman Catholicism. 

There can be no doubt that this idea has car- 
ried, and will continue to carry, conviction to 
many minds ; but to any one who will look be- 
low the surface it is insufficient and misleading. 
Beyond all question this is essentially a Protes- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



39 



tant country, and, as far as any immediate danger 
is concerned, is certainly safe against the en- 
croachments of Romanism. 

In admitting this, do we, however, set aside the 
necessity of our acting intelligently in the mat- 
ter ? Having satisfied ourselves that Protestant- 
ism will maintain its supremacy as long as we 
live, do we thereby relieve ourselves of our duty 
to posterity ? Is there no value in that pre- 
vision which anticipates the future through the 
character of the present ? 

Is there no danger in that stolid indifference 
which refuses to recognize the importance of 
spiritual forces, and which, as it folds its huge 
democratic arms in drowsiness, stares vacantly 
and listlessly at the growth of an evil which 
threatens the very foundations of intellectual 
liberty and modern culture ? 

Having answered these questions as they 
ought to be answered, it seems almost impossi- 
ble that we can fail to realize the importance 
with which the subject of Roman Catholicism 
presses upon us. 

That the Roman Catholic Church must to 
some extent enter into the determination of our 



40 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



future, follows necessarily from the nature of 
things ; but whether it shall be a merely inci- 
dental influence acting in subordination to the 
Protestant principles on which our government 
is founded, or a vast overshadowing power 
thrusting us back into the darkness of the mid- 
dle ages, depends very much upon how far we 
pursue a course of intelligent watchfulness, or 
allow ourselves to become the victims of a false 
sense of security. In this respect let us not be 
deceived. 

As a nation we have been allotted the task of 
working out the problem of self-government. 
But we must not suppose, because we have been 
given privileges which are exceptional and pecu- 
liar, that we are thereby exempted from those 
general laws which hold good in other civilized 
communities. Judging from appearances only 
will not answer. Judging from the standpoint of 
an over-sanguine optimism will not answer. In 
both these instances we are apt to miss certain 
subtile forces which do not appear on the sur- 
face, but which nevertheless exercise great influ- 
ence in weaving the web of destiny. Besides, if 
we appear to be unusually favored as to our 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 

privileges and opportunities, it is worthy of re- 
mark that other nations have so appeared at the 
very moment they were about to be weighed in 
the balances and found wanting. 

In the words of Froude : " Changes analo- 
gous to those which we contemplate with so 
much satisfaction have been witnessed already 
in the history of nations. The Roman in the 
time of the Antonines might have looked back 
with the same feelings on the last years of the 
Republic. The civil war was at an end. From 
the Danube to the African deserts, from the 
Euphrates to the Irish Sea, the swords were 
beaten into ploughshares. The husbandman 
and the artisan, the manufacturer and the mer- 
chant, pursued their trades under the shelter of 
the eagles, secure from arbitrary violence, and 
scarcely conscious of their masters' rule. Order 
and law reigned throughout the civilized world. 
Science was making rapid strides. The philos- 
ophers of Alexandria had tabulated the move- 
ments of the stars, had ascertained the periods 
of the placets, and were anticipating by conjec- 
ture the great discoveries of Copernicus. The 
mud cities of the Old World were changed to 



42 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



marble. Greek art, Greek literature, Greek 
enlightenment followed in the track of the 
legions. The harsher forms of slavery were sup- 
pressed by the law ; the coarser and more sen- 
suous superstitions were superseded by a broader 
philosophy. The period between the accession 
of Trajan and the death of Marcus Aurelius has 
been selected by Gibbon as the time in which 
the human race had enjoyed more general hap- 
piness than they had ever known before, or had 
known since, up to the date when the historian 
was meditating on their fortunes. Yet during 
that very epoch, and in the midst of all that 
prosperity, the heart of the empire was dying 
out of it." 

Of course, I do not mean to say that our po- 
sition as a nation is analogous to that of Rome. 
There are many things which separate us very 
widely from the condition of Rome during the 
period to which the historian refers. In admit- 
ting this difference we must not, however, for- 
get that there also exists a sense in which we are 
to-day governed by the same underlying princi- 
ples which governed the Roman Empire seven- 
teen hundred years ago. In many respects the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



43 



conditions are changed. But the irresistible 
sequence between cause and effect is precisely 
the same. Now, as then, we are brought face 
to face with the supreme and solemn fact of 
human life. Now, as then, we are called upon 
to receive the consequences of our obedience or 
disobedience to those divine laws which sweep 
through the ages with unerring precision and 
certainty. In other words, as we look below 
the surface, and study carefully the causes 
which ended in the downfall of the Roman Em- 
pire, we can very easily discover the presence of 
that eternal Nemesis to which I have already 
referred — that Nemesis which even the confu- 
sion and dismay consequent on the downfall of 
Rome could not swerve from her unalterable 
purpose. 

Circumstances vary, ages change, the world 
moves ; but under all conditions the great fact 
of spiritual law remains. To all appearances 
noise is the necessary concomitant of power ; 
whereas the truth is the world is governed by 
those silent forces which enter through a process 
of almost imperceptible permeation into the 
mysterious depths of human character. 



44 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Nor is it too much to say that if these consid- 
erations are properly appreciated they cannot 
fail to impress us with the important conse- 
quences necessarily connected with the teach- 
ings of Roman Catholicism, at the same time 
that they ought also to point out to us the ne- 
cessity of understanding in what manner the in- 
fluences of Romanism are likely to affect us. 
Confronted as we are by innumerable evidences 
that Roman Catholicism is one of the most 
tremendous forces with which modern civiliza- 
tion has to deal ; and realizing, as we must, that 
national character is the result of spiritual forces, 
it follows of necessity that the Protestantism of 
to-day needs all the vigilance and energy which 
characterized the early years of the Reforma- 
tion. Surveying the vast field which is covered 
by the manifold interests growing out of the act- 
ive growth of our national life, he must indeed 
be a short-sighted man who permits the delusion 
of an easy-going optimism to so far blur his 
vision as to cause indifference to our position in 
this particular respect. Even if it be true, as 
Mr. Gladstone says, "that every nation is of 
necessity, to a great extent, in the condition of 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 

the sluggard with regard to public policy — hard 
to rouse, harder to keep aroused, sure after a 
little while to sink back into his slumber/' 1 it 
is equally true that the nation which ignores the 
conditions of its spiritual life is sure sooner or 
later to reap the consequences of its folly. In 
the larger growth of nations, as in the smaller 
growth of individuals, it will not do to despise 
the action of spiritual forces because they are for 
the most part invisible to the eye of the ordinary 
observer. In view of the magnificent triumphs 
of physical science in the present day, there cer- 
tainly does exist a disposition to disparage that 
habit of thought which is most in harmony with 
the demands of our higher consciousness ; but 
for the sake of our future let us hope that this 
reaction will ultimately lead to a clearer and 
deeper appreciation of those laws by which the 
spiritual life of humanity is governed. While 
we may safely regard the present attitude of 
scientific thought as a healthy reaction from the 
exploded teachings of an irrational theology, let 
us never forget that science becomes unscientific 
when it attempts to set aside certain phenomena 

1 North American Review \ Sept.-Oct., 1878. 



46 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



which are coeval with the human race, and 
which, however much they may vary in appear- 
ance during the different ages in the world's 
growth, are nevertheless supremely important 
realities which we cannot eliminate from the con- 
ditions of human life and development. As in 
the world of matter all things are governed by 
the inexorable conditions of natural law, so in 
the higher sphere of human activity everything 
derives its character and importance from the 
relation which it bears to spiritual law and the 
consequences therein involved. In order that 
we may properly appreciate our position, it can- 
not be too forcibly insisted on that the magnifi- 
cence of our material prosperity is secondary and 
unimportant when compared with the intellect- 
ual and spiritual conditions which form the 
bases of character. Important as it is that we 
should be prosperous and powerful in a material 
sense, it is infinitely more important that we 
should be prosperous and powerful as to those 
things which pertain to our intellectual and 
spiritual consciousness. If, as a nation, we rise 
no higher than the things which our material 
prosperity represents, we may safely set it down 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



47 



as a foregone conclusion that we cannot maintain 
our present position among the leading nations 
of the world. What we are is necessarily deter- 
mined to a great extent by what we strive to 
be, and in this sense the quality of our aspira- 
tions and the aim and purpose of our ideal are 
of the greatest importance. 

Or, to put the subject somewhat differently, it 
will be well for us to bear in mind the truth 
which Emerson expresses when he says, M It is 
a rule that holds in economy as in hydraulics, 
that you must have a source higher than your 
tap." In point of fact, our real character is de- 
termined, not by our numerical and material 
strength, but by those silent, and for the most 
part unseen, forces, which take their rise in the 
elevations of our spiritual consciousness, thence 
entering into and shaping the current of that life 
upon which our destiny and our place in history 
primarily depend. Measured by the only stand- 
ard which is worthy of our consideration, it is a 
matter of secondary importance whether we are 
or are not, as to our material resources, the 
superior of other nations ; but it is a matter of 
primary importance whether we are or are not 



48 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



in a healthy condition as to those forms of intel- 
lectual and spiritual activity without which the 
currents of our national life are necessarily slug- 
gish and impure. If there is any meaning in 
the bright promise of our national childhood, it 
clearly indicates a responsibility which stretches 
far beyond our material advantages, and which 
also, from its very nature, imposes upon us the 
necessity of cultivating every influence calcu- 
lated to strengthen and purify our intellectual 
and spiritual life. Clearly and unmistakably we 
could never have attained to our present posi- 
tion among nations had we neglected the culti- 
vation and development of our material re- 
sources ; but as clearly and unmistakably our 
position is mainly due to the fact that as a na- 
tion we represent certain principles which place 
us in the vanguard of civilization and progress. 
Nor can we dwell too forcibly on this point in 
dealing with the question of Roman Catholicism 
and the influences which it exerts on our na- 
tional life. 

To understand the aim and purpose of this 
tremendous power, we must above all things 
bear in mind the important fact that there is a 



IN THE UNITED STATES, 



49 



sense in which Romanism and republican insti- 
tutions are necessarily antagonistic. As slavery 
was a deeply rooted evil which required a bap- 
tism of fire for its cure, so is Roman Catholicism 
an antagonizing force which requires all the en- 
ergy and vigilance of an active Protestantism to 
counteract its influence. Beyond all question it 
is sound wisdom, no less than simple justice, to 
allow each person to worship God according to 
the dictates of his own conscience ; but it is the 
quintessence of mental imbecility to allow a sys- 
tem as vast and dangerous as Romanism to pur- 
sue its career of conquest unchallenged. 

Because Roman Catholicism appeals to our re- 
ligious consciousness, it necessarily partakes to 
some extent of 

" The feeling which is evidence 
That very near about us lies 
The realm of spritual mysteries 

but above and beyond this phase of the subject 
there are other conditio!^ which indicate clearly 
the antagonism between Romanism and Amer- 
ican institutions. 

Now, as ever, the enthronement of Romanism 
means the dethronement of liberty. Now, as 



5° 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ever, the supremacy of the Romish priesthood 
means the starvation of reason and the suppres- 
sion of man's noblest faculties. I am aware 
that in these days it is quite the fashion to re- 
gard the cry of " No popery !" as a hollow and 
unmeaning sound ; but after all it expresses a 
feeling which every lover of Anglo-Saxon tra- 
ditions ought to respect rather than condemn. 
Of course, it sometimes happens that this feel- 
ing is carried to an absurd extreme, thus reduc- 
ing the subject to the narrowness of bigotry. 
But because this liability to perversion exists, it 
surely does not follow that the feeling is there- 
fore devoid of usefulness. Of one thing we 
may at least be sure. And that is, if we do not 
conquer Romanism it will certainly conquer us. 
To suppose that there can be such a thing as 
compromise or harmonious action between Ro- 
manism and Protestantism, is to suppose an ab- 
surdity. In fact, relying, as we do, for the wel- 
fare and success of our institutions, on the un- 
restricted action of those Protestant forces which 
underlie modern civilization, we cannot realize 
too clearly that the teachings and tendencies of 
Romanism are directly opposed to all that is 



IN THE U XI TED STATES. 



clearest to our hearts as lovers of liberty and 
advocates of culture and progress. Keeping in 
mind the words of Gambetta, " Always remem- 
ber that our enemy is clericalism/ ' let us also 
remember that with us, as with the French Re- 
public, there exists a radical and necessary an- 
tagonism between the imperious pretensions of 
the Roman Catholic Church and the freedom 
and self-reliance essential to a republican form 
of government. 

That we may do full justice to our golden op- 
portunities and the advantages by which we are 
surrounded, it is necessary that we should do 
something more than drift listlessly down the 
stream of time, regardless of certain consequences 
which are sure to follow a diseased and debil- 
itated condition of spiritual life. To be really 
and permanently great, we must dismiss the illu- 
sion that there is no necessary connection be- 
tween religious consciousness and national char- 
acter. 4 Setting aside the popular fallacy which 
measures a nation's greatness by military 
strength and the possession of vast material re- 
sources, let us see to it that we advocate that 
higher and truer estimate which counts that na- 



52 ROMAN CATHOLICISM 

tion greatest in which the higher hopes and 
aspirations of humanity are most fully embodied. 
Then, and not until then, will we fulfil the glori- 
ous mission which has been laid upon us ; then, 
and not until then, can we consistently hope 
that we will be borne onward 

" By that great current in its onward sweep, 
Wandering and rippling with caressing waves 
Around green islands fragrant with the breath 
Of flowers that never wither." 

In point of numbers we may grow larger, in 
point of wealth we may grow richer ; but unless 
we cultivate at the same time the elements of 
intellectual and moral greatness, we are simply 
giving ourselves up to a base and vulgar idolatry 
which cannot otherwise than end in the most 
disastrous consequences. It is true there are 
times when the interests of civilization are most 
fully served by those nations strongest in mili- 
tary power and most unscrupulous in territorial 
acquisition. But to suppose that this is any 
argument against the supremacy of intellectual 
and spiritual forces is to misunderstand the sub- 
ject and overlook the fact that war and cupidity 
are sometimes necessary evils having their special 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 53 

uses to perform. As the world moves on, and 
century follows century, there will necessarily 
be many changes in the hopes and aspirations 
of the human race ; but, under all circum- 
stances, we can safely count upon the inesti- 
mable value of that alliance in which a healthy 
intellectual freedom and a fine spirituality go 
hand in hand as the conquerors of superstition 
and the benefactors of humanity. Nor can we 
doubt for a moment that that nation is happiest 
and greatest which enjoys these blessings to the 
greatest extent. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. 

Admitting that Roman Catholicism is a 
mighty influence which we cannot safely disre- 
gard, there is an important question which it 
will be well for us to consider before proceeding- 
farther with our subject ; this question being, 
What is the spirit of Romanism ? By answering 
this question honestly and frankly, we shall be 
able the more easily to understand the importance 



54 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



of the subject before us, while we shall also be 
better able to understand why it is that Roman- 
ism and Republicanism are radically opposed to 
each other. 

If, after we have examined into the spirit of 
Romanism, we find nothing to justify the ap- 
prehensions of danger, we are bound to admit 
the chimerical character of those fears which so 
largely haunt the minds of many of the most 
earnest Protestants. Unpleasant as it is to find 
ourselves the victims of delusion, the interests of 
truth would demand that we withdraw our 
charges against the Church of Rome. Even if 
such a confession involved the admission that 
Protestantism is a failure, there would be no 
alternative. If our indictment against Roman- 
ism is unfounded, the sooner we understand the 
facts of the case the better. But it must be 
borne in mind that whatever is applicable to one 
side of the subject is equally applicable to the 
other. If, instead of finding our indictment 
weak and worthless, a candid examination re- 
veals the fact that Romanism is essentially op- 
posed to the welfare of American institutions, 
our duty is equally clear, and the demands of 
truth equally imperative. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



55 



Reduced to its last analysis, Romanism is 
either a blessing which we cannot value too 
highly, or it is an evil which we cannot watch 
too closely and guard against too carefully. Be- 
tween the two extremes there exists no middle 
ground, no neutral territory in which the forces 
of Romanism and Protestantism may meet with- 
out danger of conflict. Indeed, such are the 
overshadowing pretensions of Roman Catholi- 
cism, that no territory can be considered ex- 
empt from the jurisdiction of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church. With Christian Rome, as with Pa- 
gan Rome, the vast and all-embracing aim to- 
ward supremacy and universal sovereignty forbids 
the recognition of anything like half measures. 
If Pagan Rome followed a dream of glory, 

'* Scorning the base degrees 
By which he did ascend," 

so does Christian Rome yield to that spirit of 
pride and ambition which places the temporal 
above the spiritual, admits no equals, and looks 
on all forms of liberty as enemies to be resisted 
and crushed. " When Rome has spoken, that 
is the end of the matter/' said Augustine ; and 
so says every believer in and supporter of papal 



56 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



authority to-day. The imperialism of the 
Caesars was a stately edifice, founded on power 
and adorned with the splendid trophies of mili- 
tary conquest ; it was strong, resolute, defiant ; 
and even now, as it rises among the ruins of the 
past, it inspires us with feelings of awe and ad- 
miration. 

The imperialism of the papacy grows out of 
the perversion of Christian humility into arro- 
gance and intolerance ; but it is none the less 
real on this account. In fact, there is a sense in 
which any appearance of unreality in this di- 
rection is a source of additional strength and 
danger. 

In regard to Caesar's conquests, it is easy to 
trace the operation of ambition backed by pow- 
er and ability ; whereas in regard to the Church 
of Rome, there has been, and is, such a cunning 
admixture of subtlety with power, that it be- 
comes exceedingly difficult to follow the delicate 
and oftentimes circuitous methods by which the 
end is sought to be attained. 

Different as their methods are, it is as true of 
Romanism as it was of Caesarism, that the great 
aim of existence is domination over the world 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



57 



and the extension of an authority which admits 
no rival. 

Of course it is to be admitted that there is a 
great difference between what Caesar did and 
what the Church of Rome hopes to do ; but this 
does not set aside the fact that the pretensions 
of Romanism are to-day vaster and more danger- 
ous than those of Csesarism ever were. 

Building on the prestige which belongs to the 
mighty name of Rome, the Roman Catholic 
Church claims dominion over an empire which 
dwarfs the most ambitious dreams of ancient 
Rome, even in her palmiest days. In urging his 
claims to supremacy, it is true that the Pope 
rests the validity of his title primarily on his po- 
sition as sovereign of a spiritual empire, but that 
this removes the dangers consequent on the pre- 
tensions of the Roman Catholic Church no one 
familiar with the history of Romanism will be- 
lieve. 

Aside from all other evidences, we have re- 
cently had sufficient proof in the expulsion of 
Father Curci because he expressed the opinion 
that the temporal power of the Pope had fallen, 
and that the Pope would be wiser if he accepted 



5* 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



the inevitable condition of things rather than 
vainly endeavor to reinstate what cannot be 
reinstated. " My only fault," says this vener- 
able man,. " is having had the courage to speak 
out regarding the temporal power what all — 
with the exception of the flatterers who surround 
the Pope — think, but are afraid to declare. I 
have come forth and spoken, but I have found 
the silence of a desert." 

In this and similar statements there is nothing 
which militates against the Pope's spiritual sov- 
ereignty, but to the mind of the late Pius IX. 
and his advisers it was a deadly sin to attempt 
to separate the spiritual and temporal claims of 
the Church. 

Father Curci was, until his expulsion, one of 
the ablest writers in the Roman Catholic Church. 
His writings, besides being an ornament to the 
Church, have brought into the coffers of the Com- 
pany of Jesuits, to which he belonged, no less a 
sum e than 160,000 francs. Against the unpar- 
donable sin of questioning the Pope's temporal 
sovereignty, this, however, could have no pos- 
sible effect. He had dared to question what, 
as an obedient Romanist, he ought not to have 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



59 



questioned ; and the result was he received his 
quantum of those fulminating denunciations 
which the Church of Rome always holds in re- 
serve for its rebellious subjects. Forgetting that 
he wore the chains of slavery, Father Curci at- 
tempted to walk like a free man ; and as a con- 
sequence he soon paid the penalty for his pre- 
sumption. 

No matter, therefore, how plausibly the argu- 
ment for the Pope's supremacy is presented, or 
how artfully the logical consequences of such an 
argument are concealed, it still remains true that 
the great underlying principle of Romanism is 
one of deadly animosity toward everything 
which interferes with the absolute supremacy of 
the Church of Rome. Indeed, such are the es- 
sential qualities of Romanism, that it is not too 
much to say that the Church of Rome would 
not hesitate to put the world back a thousand 
years, could it by so doing accomplish its pur- 
pose. Shrewdly enough the leaders of Roman- 
ism profess themselves the friends of progress 
and enlightenment, but that the real purpose of 
Romanism is domination at any cost must be at 
once evident to any one who looks . eneath the 



6o 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



hollowness of these empty professions. Given 
the opportunity, the Church of Rome will do in 
the future what it has done in the past. Profess- 
ing to be the friend of progress, it has again and 
again opposed the power of its vast machinery 
against the struggling intellect of man. Pro- 
fessing to be the only infallible authority, it 
now seeks to bring the whole civilized world un- 
der a subjection which can only end in the re- 
turn of those dark ages wherein the human mind 
groaned in its fetters because priestcraft was 
supreme. " In place of Christianity, the 
Church ; in place of free belief, an imposed or- 
thodoxy ; in place of moral fervor, determined 
religious practices ; in place of heart and ener- 
getic thought, external and mechanical disci- 
pline : these are the characteristics of the mid- 
dle ages. Under this constraint a thinking soci- 
ety had ceased to think ; philosophy was turned 
into a text-book, and poetry into raving ; and 
mankind, slothful and crouching, made over their 
conscience and their conduct into the hands of 
their priests, and were as puppets, capable only 
of reciting a catechism and chanting a hymn/* 1 

1 Taine's English Literature. 



IN THE UXITED STATES. 



61 



In other words, the aim of Romanism, not- 
withstanding its fair promises and plausible pro- 
fessions, may properly be said to be the re-estab- 
lishment of that narrow sacerdotal spirit which 
has always been the enemy of liberty, and which 
can only exist under the twilight of ignorance 
and superstition. 

In answer to this it may be said that as the 
world is so changed as to render a return to this 
darkness impossible, it is needless to discuss a 
subject w T hich possesses for us no immediate 
interest. To some extent this is happily true ; 
but as it is the condition of the w r orld, and not 
the nature of Romanism, which has changed, we 
cannot afford to fall into the error of confound- 
ing the one with the other. The pow r er of the 
Roman Catholic Church is not w T hat it was ; but 
this is no evidence that it will not seek every 
opportunity to regain what it has lost, nor does 
it warrant us in settling down into that sense of 
ease and comfortable security which we are apt 
to mistake for real strength and immunity from 
danger. After w T e have made every allowance 
for that march of intellect which has diminished 
the power of Romanism, it is well for us to re- 



62 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



member that, notwithstanding our boasted 
enlightenment, the world has not yet en- 
tirely outgrown the superstitions of its earlier 
days. 

There is a general diffusion of knowledge, and 
a power of resistance growing out of our Protest- 
ant civilization, which largely insure us against 
danger ; but we sadly mistake our position if we 
suppose that there exist no elements among us out 
of which Roman Catholicism can construct a for- 
midable aggressive policy. The Roman Church 
of to-day has not the power to depose kings or 
to bring rebellious princes to their knees ; but 
the old spirit, operating under new conditions, 
still remains. As an example of this, let us 
mark the words of a prominent Jesuit: "The 
interests of mankind demand a bridle by which 
princes may be restrained and the people saved. 
This bridle might by common consent be placed 
in the hands of the Roman pontiff. Such a high 
priest, mingling in worldly conflicts only to 
silence them, admonishing alike the sovereign 
and the people of their duties, condemning their 
crimes, and visiting his excommunication on 
great wrongs, would be looked upon as the living 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



63 



representative and likeness of God upon the 
earth, 1 ' 1 

Surely if language means anything, this as- 
sertion means nothing short of a demand that 
the whole world should prostrate itself before 
the pontifical throne, and own its allegiance to 
the Pope " as the living representative and like- 
ness of God upon the earth/ ' 

It either means this, or it is loose and vulgar 
bravado ; and as the latter is scarcely admissible 
in dealing with Roman Catholic writers, we are 
bound to conclude that the words mean exactly 
what they appear to mean. Besides, that this 
deification of the Pope means a very great deal 
in reference to us, is fully illustrated by another 
remark by the same writer. '* One of the most 
glorious enterprises for the Catholic Church to 
engage in at this day is the conversion of the 
United States to the Catholic faith" says this 
enthusiastic Jesuit ; and in saying so he un- 
doubtedly expresses the opinion of his ecclesias- 
tical superiors. Keeping constantly before their 
minds the idea that they will ultimately succeed 

1 The Apostolical and Infallible Authority of the Pope, etc. 
By Weninger. 



64 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



in making this country the stronghold of Roman 
Catholicism, it is not too much to say that the 
priests and defenders of Romanism never miss 
an opportunity to disseminate their teachings in 
this direction. 1 

As in the case of pagan Rome the strength 
of the army consisted in its perfect discipline and 
the bravery and the unwavering fidelity of the 
Roman soldiers, so in the case of ecclesiastical 
Rome the strength of the priesthood consists in 
its complete organization and the devotion and 
singleness of purpose of its members. Unlike 
the disorganized forces of Protestantism, the 
defenders of Romanism are held together by a 
system which renders them thoroughly homoge- 

1 See, for example, an article in the Catholic World, for 
July, 1872, in which the writer says : " With the means of in- 
stant intelligent communication and rapid transportation, it 
is not an impossibility to hope that the head of the Church may 
again become the acknowledged head of the re-united family 

of Christian nations While the State has rights, she 

has them only in virtue and by permission of the superior 
authority, and that authority can only be expressed through 
the Church ; that is, through the organic law, infallibly an- 
nounced and unchangeably asserted, regardless of temporal 
consequences." This ideal supremacy of the Church, it is 
claimed by this writer, " it is within the power of the ballot, 
wielded by Catholic hands," to establish. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



6 5 



neous and cohesive. Where Protestantism hesi- 
tates and stumbles for want of clearness and 
directness of method, Romanism moves steadily 
on, regardless of everything except the one great 
aim of its life. Realizing the immense value 
of concentration of purpose and unity of action, 
the Roman Catholic priesthood know perfectly 
well how much they can accomplish by never 
swerving from the object they desire to attain. 

Nor is this all. In addition to its singleness 
and clearness of purpose, it is one of the princi- 
pal characteristics of Romanism that it always 
moves strategically. 

What Protestantism is, and what its vulner- 
able points are, Rome thoroughly understands ; 
and, we may safely depend upon it, she governs 
herself accordingly. 

That an open contest at the present time be- 
tween Romanism and Protestantism would cer- 
tainly end in the defeat of Romanism no one 
knows better than the ruling spirits in the Roman 
Catholic Church ; but they also know that time 
and opportunity under judicious management 
very often accomplish what at the moment 
seems impossible. 



66 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Besides, this would not be the first time in its 
history that the power of ecclesiastical Rome 
had reasserted itself and regained the power 
which it had apparently lost for ever. As an 
example of this, Milman, in referring to that 
period in the history of the Roman Catholic 
Church which is sometimes called the Babylonish 
captivity, has well said : " It is perhaps the 
most marvellous part of its history that the 
Papacy, having sunk so low, sank no lower ; that 
it recovered its degradation ; that from a satel- 
lite, almost a slave, of the King of France, the 
pontiff ever emerged again to be an independent 
potentate ; and, although the great line of me- 
diaeval popes, of Gregory, of Alexander III., 
and the Innocents expired in Boniface VIII,, 
he could resume even his modified supremacy. 
There is no proof so strong of the vitality of the 
Papacy as that it could establish the law that 
wherever the Pope is, there is the throne of St. 
Peter ; that he could cease to be Bishop of Rome 
in all but in name, and then take back again the 
abdicated bishopric.' ' 

Having given such ample proof of its vitality 
in this and other instances in the past, why may 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



67 



we not suppose that the Papacy is still alive 
with that indomitable energy which refuses to 
be conquered ? 

As I have already shown, there is little chance 
of our ever being subjected to that insolent 
tyranny which brought John, King of England, 
to his knees before the Pope's legate, and which 
also compelled Frederick Barbarossa "by the 
heavy hand of God to bow his head and sue for 
pajrdon. " 

But there is a very great probability that, un- 
less we meet the evil in its incipiency, we will 
be called upon in a comparatively short time to 
meet one of the most momentous questions that 
can engage us. 

While we sleep and snore, Roman Catholicism 
actively makes the most of its opportunities, and 
laughs at our somnolent condition. 

It is true there are times Avhen the American 
eagle screeches itself hoarse in proclaiming our 
consciousness of power ; but this is not what we 
need in dealing with the present emergency. 

Useful as the screeches of the eagle and the 
strut of the peacock may be on certain oc- 
casions which appeal to our national vanity, 



68 



'ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



they are positively useless as remedies for 
that general drowsiness and indifference which 
fail to realize the dangerous insidiousness of 
Romanism. The spirit of Romanism being 
what it is, we cannot be too much alive, we 
cannot guard too carefully those interests which 
are necessarily jeopardized by the growth of 
Roman Catholicism. In all our dealings with 
Romanism let us always be true to those princi- 
ples of liberty and justice which underlie our 
constitution ; but let us at the same time re- 
member that we are dealing, not with an un- 
couth and uncivilized enemy who wastes his 
strength through want of discipline, but with a 
subtle foe who thoroughly understands the 
forces with which he has to deal, and who knows 
perfectly well how to use them. 

In making these charges against Romanism, I 
am aware that it may with a degree of truth be 
said that if the Popes had been suppressed, 
Europe would not have had the advantages of 
the civilization of the middle ages. In this re- 
spect it is to be admitted that the middle ages 
performed an important part in the develop- 
ment of humanity ; but, in making this admis- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



6 9 



sion, we must never forget that if the human 
mind had been successfully fettered by the nar- 
rowness and superstition of that time, Europe 
and America would to-day be laboring under 
the evils of intellectual stagnation and grovel- 
ling spiritual debasement. Instead of the free- 
dom of thought and activity of enterprise which 
characterize modern civilization, we should have 
been under the shadow of a vast ecclesiastical 
empire, the existence of which necessarily in- 
volves the suppression of those qualities of mind 
and heart which give to modern culture its well- 
rounded completeness, its breadth of thought, 
and depth of feeling. Whatever the claims may 
be which the Church of Rome can urge on be- 
half of her usefulness during the middle ages, 
it does not require any extraordinary perception 
to see that were we at present living under the 
shadow of medievalism we should be groping 
in dark corners and mumbling a few mechani- 
cal prayers where we now walk in the broad day- 
light and contemplate, with uplifted minds and 
hearts, the glories of God. 

In the wise ordering of Providence, it was 
not, however, determined that mediaevalism 



70 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



should last for ever. Strong in the conscious- 
ness of her power, the Roman Catholic Church 
seemed fully warranted in saying, I sit as a 
queen, and shall see no sorrow. " But, not- 
withstanding appearances, an important change 
was at hand. In the fulness of time the age of 
the Reformation dawned upon the world. A 
new force was generated in the sphere of 
thought and feeling ; and the human mind, 
awaking from its long sleep during the night of 
medisevalism, shook off its fetters, and moved 
forward in its magnificent career, conquering and 
to conquer. 

Having for its conscious purpose the reform- 
ing of religion, the Reformation really went be- 
yond this, and delivered human reason from the 
slavery under which it had groaned. According 
to Guizot, '* it was an insurrection of the human 
mind against the absolute power of the spiritual 
order/ ' 

Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that 
it was Europe's grand age, from which sprung 
those vivifying forces which in due course of 
time rendered our national existence possible. 
Gladly would the Church of Rome have stran- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. Ji 

gled this new birth had it been able to do so ; 
but with all her strenuous exertions the effort to 
do so failed. Fortunately for the world the 
cradle of Protestantism was watched over by a 
Power which preserved it in its hour of peril. 

Nor have we any reason to doubt that the 
same guiding hand which has led us through the 
intricacies of the past will also guide us through 
the dangers of the future. Clearly enough we 
are warranted in supposing that the Power 
which has guided Protestantism in the past will 
continue to guide it in the future. But in com- 
forting ourselves with this assurance let us never 
forget that in the present and future, no less 
than in the past, much depends upon the use 
we make of the faculties which God has given 
us. Falling back on the comforting assurance 
that 

" There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will, " 

it is highly important that we should recognize 
at least a degree of truth in Napoleon's remark, 
that " Providence is always on the side of the 
strongest battalions. 



72 ROMAN CATHOLICISM 

In other words, while the result of the contest 
between Romanism and Protestantism is with- 
out doubt primarily in the hands of Providence, 
much can be done, and must necessarily be 
done, through those human means and agencies 
which come within our control. 

That Romanism is an enemy to our institu- 
tions, all history and the declarations of leading 
Roman Catholics prove. 1 Stripped of all ex- 
traneous issues and all well-meant but mislead- 
ing euphemisms, the question before us is a 
simple one, and ought to admit of no ambiguity 
or misconstruction. Unlike each other in aim 
and purpose, the spirit of Romanism tends in 
one direction, and the spirit of American insti- 
tutions tends in another. Starting from entirely 
different conceptions of human nature and the 
conditions by which it is surrounded, the two 
tendencies are necessarily antagonistic and 
counteractive c Possibly they may co-exist for 
some time without coming into open collision ; 

1 As an illustration of the fact that Romanism is most sus- 
pected where it is best known and has been longest on trial, 
we have only to refer to the movement now going on in 
France for the diminution of the power and influence of the 
priesthood over the educational interests of the country. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



73 



but that the clash of forces can be permanently 
avoided is altogether too absurd an idea to be 
seriously entertained. To suppose such a rec- 
onciliation of opposites, is to set history at de- 
fiance, and to ignore the action of those irreversi- 
ble laws which govern the conditions of human 
growth and development. 

Of one thing we may at least be sure ; and 
that is that the pure and bracing air of Protest- 
antism having made us what we are, it is only 
by keeping the atmosphere free from all forms 
of ecclesiastical malaria that we can hope to 
preserve our state of healthfulness, or realize the 
full measure of our possibilities. What we are 
is largely the result of that strong sense of indi- 
vidualism which underlies the Anglo-Saxon race. 
What we are yet to be will depend very much 
on the preservation of this strong sense of man- 
liness accompanied by a determined resistance 
against all forms of imposture and sacerdotal 
arrogance. 

As a means of defence against the encroach- 
ments of Romanism, we do not want any of that 
narrow bigotry which is no better than the evil 
it would seek to remove ; but we do need a 



74 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



reasonable watchfulness which shall be consistent 
with the spirit of freedom, and which shall spare 
us the chagrin and humiliation of lamenting in 
the future over our present folly. In view of 
the immense advantages at present on the side 
of Protestantism, the most ordinary care and 
precaution will suffice to insure us against dan- 
ger. But to accomplish this, Vigilajite must be 
our motto. 

Without this, Rome laughs at our boasted 
strength, and captures our outposts while we 
drowse and nod. By proving true to our trust 
as the inheritors of a movement which revolu- 
tionized Europe and laid the foundations of 
modern culture, we can easily defeat the 
machinations of Rome. Failing, however, in 
our duty, and proving ourselves unworthy of 
the golden opportunities -which have been 
afforded us, we can confidently look forward to 
a result such as Mr. Froude describes, when he 
says : u So much only can be foretold with cer- 
tainty, that if the Catholic Church anywhere re- 
covers her ascendency, she will again exhibit the 
detestable features which have invariably at- 
tended her supremacy. Her rule will be once 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



75 



more found incompatible either with justice or 
with intellectual growth, and our children will 
be forced to recover by some fresh struggle the 
ground which our forefathers conquered for us, 
and which we by our pusillanimity surrendered." 
To some persons this may seem strong language 
to use in regard to a church which claims to 
represent the highest hopes and aspirations of 
the human race. But strong as the language is, 
it is justly applied nevertheless. Estimated 
according to its true character, and not accord- 
ing to the garb under which it appears to ordi- 
nary observers, Romanism is the natural enemy 
of certain principles which are inseparable from 
the welfare and healthy development of our na- 
tional life. As such it ought therefore to be 
carefully watched, its designs understood, and 
its insolent pretensions kept under such re- 
straints as our Protestant civilization, in the ex- 
ercise of its sovereign powers, has the right to 
impose. It is one thing to conjure up imaginary 
evils, and make ourselves unnecessarily miser- 
able ; it is quite another thing to look beneath 
specious appearances, and trace the operation 
of certain dangerous forces which are carefully 



7 6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



concealed in order to be more effective. In 
justification of the aggressive and suppressive at- 
titude of the Roman Catholic Church, it is fre- 
quently claimed that it is only by the exercise 
of this kind of authority that society can be 
saved from disintegration and ruin. That this 
argument is, however, wholly unfounded, we 
have only to look at Roman Catholic countries 
to discover. 

What Romanism really is we can easily de- 
termine by studying the condition of those coun- 
tries in which it has always had absolute sway. 
If this does not dispel our illusions, nothing will. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND MODERN 
CIVILIZATION. 

WITHOUT questioning the fact that the world 
is governed by static no less than by dynamic 
forces, it must be conceded that there are times 
when the static force, if left to itself, would sub- 
vert the conditions of progress, and produce the 
most disastrous consequences. Again and again 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



77 



history has furnished instances illustrative of this 
truth. But in no instance do we find a better 
illustration than in that persistent immobility 
which characterizes Roman Catholicism. 

Growing out of the essential quality of un- 
changeableness which underlies the principles 
of Roman Catholicism, it is not only natural, it 
is inevitable, that the liberal and progressive 
spirit of modern civilization should be freely de- 
nounced and resolutely opposed by the Church 
of Rome. At one moment hurling its anathe- 
mas against the most advanced forms of scien- 
tific inquiry, at another time denouncing the 
aims of philosophy and culture, the Roman 
Church may well be regarded as the most un- 
compromising and most formidable enemy with 
which modern civilization has to deal. In a 
very important sense it is true that some of the 
weapons with which Romanism seeks to combat 
modern civilization are of such a character as to 
provoke a smile at their antiqueness and useless- 
ness for the purposes of modern warfare. Sin- 
gularly odd and comparatively harmless as some 
of these weapons appear, it must not, however, 
be forgotten that they are capable of being ren- 



7 8 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



dered exceedingly destructive in the hands of a 
priesthood well skilled in the use of them. 
What is true of the Italian bishops and inferior 
clergy as to their ignorance and indifference is 
not true of the Roman Catholic clergy in those 
countries in which the conquest of Protestantism 
is the issue at stake. As matters now stand in 
Italy, there is good reason for believing that the 
Italian parish priest has made little or no prog- 
ress since the time when, thirty-one years ago, 
the late Pius IX. said of them : " You may find 
here and there an honest and intelligent parish 
priest, but taking them as a body they are mere 
dirt." 

The moment we transfer our observation to 
Protestant countries, the character of the Rom- 
ish priesthood is, however, entirely different. 
There we see men of undoubted ability and un- 
tiring zeal, laboring for the domination of their 
Church. Setting before themselves the one 
great aim of their existence, these men bring to 
their task a heroism and devotion which ought 
to put the lazy indifference of most of our Prot- 
estant ministers to the blush. Working bravely 
under all conditions, these servants of Rome very 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



79 



often accomplish more in a single year for their 
church, under adverse circumstances, than the 
fortunate possessors of fat Protestant livings ac- 
complish for their church in a lifetime, under the 
most favorable conditions. What the weapons 
of Roman Catholicism lack in effectiveness is 
therefore more than counterbalanced by the 
energy, devotion, and consummate ability of 
those who use them. 

Knowing perfectly well that a general diffu- 
sion of the principles of modern civilization would 
render it impossible for the Roman Catholic 
Church to maintain its present proud position, 
and knowing equally well that their only chance 
of successfully resisting the progressive spirit of 
Protestantism consists in their ability to under- 
mine modern culture, it is not to be wondered 
at that the Romish priests are constantly busy in 
these directions. 

If the anathemas of the Pope fall harmlessly 
at the feet of those against whom they are 
uttered, the writings of Newman, Manning, 
Spalding, Preston, and others are not without 
their effect on the minds of those who read 
them. If the thunder of the Vatican is merely 



8o 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



" vox et prceterea nihil," there is at least danger 
in those instrumentalities which the Church 
of Rome has at her command. And thus it 
is that if we dream of that happy state in 
which Roman Catholicism and modern civiliza- 
tion shall go hand in hand in their work of ad- 
vancing humanity, we sadly mistake the nature 
of the issues which divide these two great forces. 
Separated by habits of thought which are as dis- 
tinctly marked as the difference between Asiatic 
and European civilization, Roman Catholicism 
and modern civilization stand apart as the repre- 
sentatives of two distinct epochs in the world's 
history. Not only are they unlike ; they are 
absolutely antagonistic and irreconcilable. 

While the one appeals to us with the cold, 
sepulchral aspect of an age which has past, the 
other appeals to us with all the freshness and 
bright promise of a new life. It is true there is 
a sense in which every cultivated mind feels 
bound to respect the Roman Catholic Church 
for the good which she has accomplished in some 
directions ; but this ought not, and must not, 
prevent us from seeing that, as matters now 
stand, she is the natural enemy of those large 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 81 



impulses and progressive tendencies which enter 
into the pulsations of the new age. 

Were she contented to sit " like a widow in 
her weeds' ' beside the grave of the past, she 
would command a respect which none but the 
most ignorant and prejudiced would care to 
withhold. Notwithstanding the many blots 
upon the record of her life, no one would invade 
her sacred melancholy, no one would dare to^ 
deny her that affection of her children and re- 
spect of her enemies which the awful grandeur 
of her desolation would command. 

In point of fact, however, this attitude on our 

part is utterly precluded by the present position 

of the Church of Rome. However much we 

may wish to 

" Walk backward, with averted gaze, 
And hide the shame," 

we are compelled to pursue a different course as 
a means of self-preservation. From the stand- 
point of Romanism modern civilization has been 
fiercely denounced, 1 and the issue thus raised 

1 In proposition 80 of " The Syllabus of the Principal Errors 
of our Time," Pius IX. condemned strongly <the principle 
which asserts that the Roman Pontiff can and ought to recon- 



82 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



between the retrogressive spirit of Romanism on 
the one side and the progressive spirit of mod- 
ern civilization on the other. It is the old story 
of priestcraft endeavoring to keep the world sub- 
ject to such Procrustean methods as the priest- 
hood may please to impose. In view of the 
boasted enlightenment of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, it may be unpleasant and somewhat humil- 
iating to feel that we have not yet outgrown the 
conditions which render such an antagonism pos- 
sible. Yet such are the facts, and, being facts, 
we can only recognize them and deal with them 
as intelligently as we can. Believing in the 
righteousness of its cause, modern culture de- 
mands that the human mind shall be allowed 

cile himself to, and agree with, progress, liberalism, and civil- 
ization as lately introduced." 

In the pastoral letters for 1877-1878, delivered by Cardinal 
Pecci, now Pope Leo XIII., the following strong language ap- 
pears : " It is civilization that wants to restrict the number of 
churches and of sacred ministers, and which, at the same 
time, asks that places for the commission of sin be multiplied. 
It is civilization that clamors for theatres bereft of all sense 
and modesty. In the name of civilization all restraint is 
removed from the most exorbitant usury and from dishonest 
gains, and it is in the name of civilization, too, that a vile 
press corrupts the mind, and that art, prostituting itself, 
offends the eye with infamous statues, and opens the way to 
the corruption of hearts." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



83 



free scope and unimpeded action. Believing in 
its right of supremacy, Romanism denies to man 
the right to walk except with crutches furnished 
by the Church of Rome. 

And thus the two forces antagonize at every 
point. In addition to their unlikeness, they are 
actuated by a latent hostility which only re- 
quires the friction of circumstances to kindle it 
into a blaze. Nor can we reasonably hope that 
this latent hostility will be set aside by the 
liberalizing tendencies of the present age. 

Unless we are to allow our liberalism to de- 
generate into torpidity and indifference, there 
must always remain a profound difference be- 
tween the aims of Roman Catholicism and the 
aims of modern civilization. No matter how 
great our latitudinarianism may be, there must 
always exist between these two forces a diver- 
gence so radical as to preclude the possibility of 
anything short of a sharp and decided antago- 
nism. 

What is life to the one is death to the other ; 
what is natural and congenial to the one is un- 
natural and distasteful to the other. In this 
connection I am aware that it is the habit of 



84 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



some of the more advanced liberals to regard it 
as a matter of no consequence what a man's re- 
ligious views are so long as he is a good citizen. 
But this, while true within certain limits, is not 
true absolutely and unqualifiedly. To any one 
familiar with the ordinary course of human 
affairs it will at once be evident that merely 
doctrinal differences count for nothing as indica- 
tions or evidences of character. 

Experience proves that in the great herd of 
rascals who sin under the guise of religious re- 
spectability, all denominations are but too well 
represented. On this point it would be danger- 
ous for any church to attempt to cast the first 
stone. Unfortunately they are all tainted by a 
hypocritical rottenness, which makes good, ear- 
nest Christians hang their heads in shame. With- 
out distinction as to creed, there are but too 
many hypocritical members in all churches, of 
whom it may truly be said — 

" When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
They do suggest at first with heavenly show." 

Or, vice versa, if we look at the brighter and 
more encouraging side of Christianity, it is 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



85 



equally true that in the heart of many an honest 
doubter 1 there burns a flame as pure and bright 
as that which feeds the tranquil devotion of the 
unquestioning saint. Touched by the beauty of 
that ideal which has traversed the ages and de- 
fied the ravages of time, the honest doubter, no 
less than the submissive saint, bows down be- 
fore the matchless purity and the beautiful spirit- 
uality of a truly Christian life. Before the sub- 
lime reality mere doctrinal differences disappear 
and sink into a state of comparative insignifi- 
cance. 

Once let humanity be brought under the in- 
fluence of the cardinal teachings of Christianity, 
and it is of little consequence whether the effect 
is produced through a " sweet reasonableness" 
or the most rigid orthodoxy. Of course the 
difference of view necessitates certain distinctive 
features and traits of unlikeness ; but this does 
not prevent the existence of a sameness and uni- 
formity in the principles underlying these differ- 

1 " Perplex' d in faith, but pure in deeds 
At last he beat his music out ; 
There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds.' 1 

Tennyson. 



86 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ences. Not so, however, when we pass from 
the ever-fluctuating and comparatively unimpor- 
tant differences between the various forms of 
Christianity to the permanent and essential un- 
likeness between Roman Catholicism and mod- 
ern civilization. In this direction, the moment 
we attempt to form a comparison, we are met by 
conflicting forces which mean something much 
more vital and important than dogmatic differ- 
ences and religious prejudices. 

Despising those qualities of flexibility and 
adaptableness which render Protestantism the 
ally of civilization and progress, Romanism sets 
itself fairly and squarely against those principles 
without which modern civilization would be im- 
possible. In fact, so sharp and decided is the 
antagonism between Romanism and the forces 
which generate the progressive spirit of the pres- 
ent day, that some Roman Catholic writers de- 
clare the evil consequences of Protestantism to 
be curable only through some special and mirac- 
ulous interposition of Providence. 1 

1 " He has paid little attention to the extreme inconstancy 
and fickleness of the human mind, and studied its history to 
little purpose, who does not recognize in the event of the six- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



87 



Nominally Romanism and Protestantism rep- 
resent the same cause, being both professedly 
Christian ; but really they are as far asunder as 
the poles. Where Romanism predominates, the 
shadows of medisevalism linger, and humanity 
moves tremblingly and hopelessly amid the dark- 
ness of its surroundings. Where Protestantism 
predominates, all things seem to have caught the 
fire of a fine enthusiasm, 1 which, although it 
does not render the world as good as it ought, is 
at least a decided improvement on the torpidity, 
emasculation, and unprogressive character of 
those countries under the domination of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

teenth century one of those great calamities which God alone 
can avert by a special intervention of his providence." — 
" Protestantism Compared with Catholicity." By Rev. J. 
Balmes. 

1 In this connection it must be conceded that we are bound 
to recognize the growth of Pessimism and its influence on the 
thought of the present age. As this creed of despair is, how- 
ever, quite as much directed against Roman Catholicism as 
it is against Protestantism, it is manifestly unfair to charge 
the latter with being the cause of this gloomy philosophy. 
Pessimism is undoubtedly a strong, and to some extent a 
natural, reaction from the roseate optimism of the earlier 
part of the present century ; but it is not for this reason 
necessarily the destroyer of the faith and courage wrich are 
indispensable to Protestant civilization. 



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ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



As an example of this we have only to look 
at Spain as the country best illustrating the pre- 
dominance of Romanism — a country of which 
Buckle has well said: " While Europe is ring- 
ing with the noise of intellectual achievements, 
with which even despotic governments affect to 
sympathize, in order that they may divert them 
from their natural course, and use them as in- 
struments whereby to oppress yet more the 
liberties of the people ; while, amidst this gen- 
eral din and excitement, the public mind, 
swayed to and fro, is tossed and agitated, Spain 
sleeps on, untroubled, unheeding, impassive, 
receiving no impressions from the rest of the 
world, and making no impression upon it. 
There she lies, at the further extremity of the 
continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole rep- 
resentative now remaining of the feelings and 
knowledge of the middle ages." 

Since Buckle wrote, there have undoubtedly 
been changes, owing to the persistent encroach- 
ment of progressive ideas. Even at this day, how- 
ever, this country still illustrates in a marked de- 
gree the evil consequences of Roman Catholic 
domination. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



89 



In making these charges against Romanism, 
I know how much will be claimed on behalf of 
the Church of Rome for its usefulness in preserv- 
ing every spark of learning which glimmered 
through the dark ages ; but as this is a subject 
on which it is easy to confound distinctions 
which are widely apart, it will be well for us to 
determine how much credit is really due to the 
Church of Rome for the preservation of learning 
during this dark period of the world's history. 
In other words, while we admit the debt which 
we owe to the monasteries for the preservation 
of manuscripts which have proved of immense 
value, it is important that we should discriminate 
between what is accidental and what is inherent 
in the matter of such preservation. At all 
events the result of such discrimination can 
hardly fail to convince us that had the Church 
of Rome possessed sufficient prescience to see 
that this preservation of learning would ulti- 
mately weaken instead of strengthening its 
authority, there can be little doubt that the 
world would have been left without any ray of 
light to illumine its darkness. In the interests 
of truth and justice it is eminently proper that 



9° 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



we should give the Church of Rome all the 
credit to which she is entitled ; but it is equally 
proper that we should distinguish between the 
sweeping claims which are frequently urged in 
defence of Rome, and the facts of the case as 
they really are. 

Admitting that the ascendency of mediaeval 
Catholicity was a necessary step in the evolution 
of society, it by no means follows that we are to 
shut our eyes to certain inherent defects in the 
system. Let us even admit that Roman Cathol- 
icism in its earlier phases was not a tyranny be- 
cause it was in accordance with the intellectual 
and spiritual wants of Europe at that particular 
time ; and the result, at least as far as our pres- 
ent purpose is concerned, is still the same. 

To sustain our charge against the Church of 
Rome it is not necessary to attempt in any way 
to detract from those claims to which she is 
justly entitled ; nor is it necessary to deny that 
there is a sense in which Roman Catholicism laid 
the foundations of modern civilization. By con- 
solidating the heterogeneous elements that suc- 
ceeded the downfall of the Roman Empire, by 
softening slavery, and by infusing a new spirit 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



9 1 



resting on the superiority of moral forces, the 
Church of Rome did at this particular time per- 
form a great service to the cause of civilization 
and progress. The fact that the Church did at 
this time render good service to humanity does 
not, however, prevent us from seeing the many 
evils which have since followed in the footsteps 
of Romish predominance. It would indeed be 
strange reasoning to assert that because Roman 
Catholicism has done some good, it has therefore 
done no harm ; it would be nothing short of 
legerdemain were" we to attempt to evade pres- 
ent issues by any such dexterous shuffling. 
Allowing that nothing but ignorance or a wilful 
perversion of history could induce any one to 
argue that the Church of Rome has no claims 
worthy of respect, it must be conceded that 
nothing short of wilful blindness can prevent us 
from seeing that the intelligent recognition of 
such claims is a very different thing from a blind 
veneration of everything connected with the 
Church's history. 

Besides, it is especially worthy of our atten- 
tion to remember that there is quite as much 
danger in attempting to magnify the virtues of 



£2 ROMAN CATHOLICISM 

the middle ages as there is in attempting to em- 
phasize too strongly the vices and intellectual 
poverty of those times. In order to understand 
the points at issue between Romanism and mod- 
ern civilization, we are not called upon to deny 
any good which the Church of Rome can fairly 
claim ; we are simply called upon to deal with 
facts as they are, and, in the exercise of our 
privileges as rational beings, provide against 
what seem to us indications of danger. 

In dwelling thus on the importance of the con- 
flict between these contending forces, I do not 
mean to say that modern civilization, as at pres- 
ent constituted, is wholly good ; and that Ro- 
manism, as at present constituted, is wholly 
bad ; but I do mean to say that while the 
former represents the spirit of progress founded 
on the liberation of the human mind, the latter 
represents that spirit of ecclesiastical tyranny 
which burned Giordano Bruno and persecuted 
Galileo, and which would, had it the power, 
gladly revive the terrors of the Inquisition for 
the purpose of suppressing modern culture. In- 
deed, it is well for us to notice, in connection 
with this phase of the subject, that although the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



93 



monstrous evils of the Inquisition have repeat- 
edly been exposed, there are not wanting de- 
fenders of these horrible atrocities among Roman 
Catholic writers of the present day. According 
to one of these writers the Spanish Inquisition 
was " the most legitimate and most natural ex- 
ercise of ecclesiastical authority. ,, 1 According 
to another it was an institution necessary " to 
ferret out and bring to trial " those who were 
engaged in " secret conspiracies' ' against " the 
Church and the State." 2 Again, Le Maistre, 
in his "Letters on the Spanish Inquisition/ ' 
makes the startling assertion that " the Inquisi- 
tion is, in its very nature, good, mild, and pre- 
servative. It is the universal, indelible character 
of every ecclesiastical institution ; you see it in 
Rome, and you can see it wherever the true 
Church has power. ... A sense of duty 
obliges me to say that an heresiarch, an obsti- 
nate heretic, and a propagator of heresy should 
indisputably be ranked among the greatest 
ciriminals. . . . I by no means doubt that 

1 " Plain Talk about the Protestantism of To-day." By 
Mgr. Segur. 

2 Brownson's " Liberalism and the Church." 



94 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



a tribunal of this description, adapted to the 
times, places, and characters of nations, would 
be highly useful in every country." 

In quoting from Le Maistre it may perhaps 
be argued that the views therein expressed are 
over sixty years old ; but when it is remembered 
that these letters were translated into English 
by a Roman Catholic priest in this country, and 
published in Boston by a Roman Catholic pub- 
lisher, in 1843, *t will be easily seen that they are 
not irrelevant to our present subject. It is true 
these " impious and un-American" teachings 
have a strange sound in our ears, but this is no 
reason why we should underestimate their im- 
portance. Thanks to what the translator of 
these letters is pleased to call the " piratical and 
Pharisaical Reformation," we are so situated that 
we can safely defy the demoniacal spirit of per- 
secution which these letters express. In our 
security it is not, however, well that we should 
overlook the fact that all that the Church of 
Rome needs, to be as tyrannical as it ever was, 
is strength and opportunity. Giv^n these two 
all important conditions, there can be little 
doubt that Rome would, as she has done before, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



95 



quench the lamp of liberty in blood, and suppress 
the manliness and energy which are the very life 
and soul of Protestantism. As truly now as 
ever, Romanism claims absolute supremacy over 
mind, soul, and body ; it respects no interest 
which conflicts with its own ; it admits the truth 
and usefulness of nothing except so far as it is 
consonant with, or subservient to, its own ends 
and purposes. Of all despotisms it is the most 
despotic ; of all bigotries it is the most bigoted ; 
of all tyrannies it is> the most tyrannical. In 
speaking thus of the characteristics of Roman- 
ism, I am aware that there has always existed a 
party in the Roman Catholic Church to whom 
the imperious pretensions of the Pope have been 
distasteful. This, however, merely shows that 
the present dominant party in the Church of 
Rome has not attained its supremacy without a 
struggle. As far back as the pontificate of 
Nicholas I., we find strong words used against 
his imperiousness and impiousness ; 1 but the 

1 " We doubt neither thy venom nor thy bite ; we have re- 
solved with our brethren to tear thy sacrilegious decretals, 
thy impious bulls, and will leave thee to growl forth thy 
powerless thunders. Thou darest to accuse of impiety those 
who refuse from love to the faith to submit to thy sacrilegious 



9 6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



resistance of the Gallican bishops to the grasping 
ambition of this * 'sanguinary wolf ' ' and ' ' shame- 
less cockatrice, ' ' while it proves the utter ab- 
surdity of the dogma of papal infallibility, does 
not prove that the Church of Rome would be 
less imperious or unscrupulous in the exercise of 
power to-day than she has been at earlier stages 
of her history. Inclination waiting upon oppor- 
tunity is one thing, ability to act according to 
inclination quite another. Given the oppor- 
tunity, Rome would do precisely what she 
always has done. What this, is a glance at the 
history of Romanism will easily show. Indeed, 
it is in view of this instinctive feeling as to the 

laws ! Thou who castest discord among Christians ; thou 
who violatest evangelical peace, that immortal mark which 
Christ has placed upon the forehead of his Church ; thou ex- 
ecrable pontiff, who spits upon the book of thy God, thou 
darest to call us impious ! How, then, wilt thou call the 
clergy which bends before thy power, those unworthy priests 
vomited forth from hell, and whose forehead is of wax, their 
heart of steel, and their sides are formed of the wine of Sodom 
and Gomorrah ! Go to, these ministers are well made to 
crawl under thy abominable pride, in thy Rome, frightful Bab- 
lyon, which thou callest the holy city, eternal and infallible ! 
Go to, thy cohort of priests, soiled with adulteries, incests, 
rapes, and assassinations, is well worthy to form thy infamous 
court ; for Rome is the residence of demons, and thou, Pope, 
thou art its Satan." — Cormenin, vol. i., p. 241. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



97 



unchangeableness of Rome's insolence and in- 
tolerance that we sympathize so heartily with 
Germany in her conflict with Ultramontanism. 

Thoroughly understanding the nature of the 
enemy with which she has to deal, Germany does 
not hesitate to strike fearlessly and resolutely. 
In fact, we may well regard the building up of 
the German Empire under Protestant Prussia 
as one of the greatest triumphs of the present 
age. It is a grand achievement, and as such 
ought to command the admiration of all who 
love the cause of intellectual liberty accompanied 
by a becoming sense of loyalty and heroic 
patriotism. 

In the words of another, 1 'Why is it that 
Germany has enlisted the sympathies of enlight- 
ened and cultivated men throughout the world 
in her conflict with Ultramontanism ? It is be- 
cause she would maintain for the human mind 
that freedom of thought and development that 
Luther won at the Reformation. . . . Why 
is ecclesiastical tyranny the most hateful and 
hated of all ? Because it binds its chains upon 
the mind. Other tyrannies can be broken by 
force of will, by the uprising of the mind ; but 



9 8 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



clerical tyranny palsies the will, and holds the 
soul in vassalage. The struggle with Vatican- 
ism enlists my whole being only because I look 
upon this as the emancipation of man's spiritual 
nature from worse than material bonds/ ' 1 Nor 
is this earnest language an exaggeration of the 
subject. We admire Germany not because she 
crushes the Roman Catholicism that nurtured 
the genius of Michael Angelo, Leonardo da 
Vinci, and Raphael, but because she bravely op- 
poses the dangerous tendencies of that Ultra- 
montane spirit which hates everything pertain- 
ing to the interests of modern civilization. 

I know it is the custom of Roman Catholic 
writers to distort the facts connected with the 
present conflict in Germany, and to compare 
the struggle to that which afflicted the Church 
in the fourth century under the brutal old Em- 
peror Diocletian. Between the persecution 
under Diocletian and the conflict under the Em- 
peror William there is, however, such an obvi- 
ous difference, that the argument based on such 
a comparison is really unworthy of notice. 

1 " The United States as a Nation." By Joseph P. Thomp- 
son. J. R. Osgood & Co. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



99 



It is perhaps true that Prince Bismarck is at 
times carried by his tremendous energy beyond 
the limits of discretion, but this is no evidence 
that the consolidation of the German Empire is 
made to depend upon the nefarious spirit of re- 
ligious persecution. The animosity of the 
Jesuits toward Germany is nothing new, and it 
therefore is not to be wondered at that a mind 
as comprehensive as Prince Bismarck's should at 
once realize the danger, and meet it accord- 
ingly. Besides, it is well for us to remember 
that the Jesuits have been expelled no less than 
seventy times by different European govern- 
ments — a fact which in itself ought to be amply 
sufficient to justify the attitude of Germany to- 
ward these dangerous political religionists at the 
present time. Of course, it was only to be ex- 
pected that in clearing Germany of such noxious 
vermin, Prince Bismarck would incur the anger 
of a very large and powerful section of the 
Roman Catholic Church ; but notwithstanding 
the hue and cry about persecution, he has done 
no more than his duty ; and in doing this he has 
aided very materially that cause of culture and 
progress which ought to be dear to Protestants 
in every land. 



I0O 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



In this country we are happily exempt from 
the perplexities growing out of the alliance be- 
tween Church and State ; but the conflict be- 
tween Romanism and modern civilization is not 
devoid of interest to us on this account. Situ- 
ated as we are, there exist no outward signs of 
the colliding tendency of these" antagonistic 
forces. But let us not be deceived by appear- 
ances. Indeed, there is a sense in which the 
absence of all noisy accessories is additional evi- 
dence that the conflict possesses for us a mo- 
mentous importance. 

Silently for a thousand years the oak grows 
amid the solitudes of the forest. Silently na- 
ture disseminates the seeds of life and death. 
Silently, and for the most part unobservedly, 
are generated those tremendous forces which 
convulse society and shake the foundations of 
the intellectual and moral world. On the show 
of false appearances let us not therefore allow 
ourselves to be misled by the idea that we have 
no interest in the conflict in Europe growing out 
of the imperious demands of Rome and the 
sweeping claims of papal infallibility. We have 
outgrown the days which rendered the terrors of 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



101 



the Inquisition possible ; but we have not out- 
grown the necessity of keeping a constant and 
vigilant watch on Rome as the enemy of science, 
intellectual liberty, and a broad, progressive cul- 
ture. Knowing perfectly well that the advance- 
ment of knowledge and the liberation of the 
human spirit cannot now be arrested by persecu- 
tion and torture, Roman Catholicism has adapted 
itself to the new conditions. What it cannot 
accomplish by force it seeks to accomplish by 
stratagem. Realizing, with its usual sagacity, 
the immense value of striking opportunely and 
covertly, there is little likelihood that the Church 
of Rome will dare at present to make a bold and 
undisguised attack on those cardinal principles 
of freedom on which our institutions rest. This, 
however, is no evidence that there exist no ele- 
ments of danger. Always on the alert for every 
contingency that may arise, the Roman Catholic 
Church is to-day a perfectly organized power, 
watching and following every movement of its 
adversary. What it has lost by the overthrow 
of its temporal power it seeks to regain by a dil- 
igence and subtlety which are almost without 
parallel in history. Whether it will succeed or 



102 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



not in accomplishing its purpose will necessarily 
depend upon the manner in which the defenders 
of modern civilization understand the questions 
at issue, and the means they employ for de- 
fending the interests of liberty and progress. 
Whether there are or are not certain elements 
of attraction connected with the Roman Catholic 
Church is, in view of the wide range of the issues 
at present involved, a matter of secondary im- 
portance. As I have already pointed out, it is 
not my purpose to join those narrow bigots who 
would deny to Roman Catholicism those claims 
to which it is justly entitled. Quite as much as 
the most devout Roman Catholic I admire the 
characters of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint 
Charles Borromeo, and others who deservedly 
occupy a prominent place in the Romish Church. 
I will even go further and say that it is impossi- 
ble to contemplate the sweet purity and zealous 
devotion of some of the best representatives of 
the Roman Catholic religion of the present day 
without realizing the ineffable beauty of that 
charm which brings the best life of medievalism 
into the living present. 

As is obvious, however, there is a great differ- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 103 



ence between individual members who challenge 
our admiration, and the general tendency of a 
religious faith which saps the foundations of our 
intellectual life, and dwarfs the measure of our 
possibilities. It is not what Roman Catholicism 
has done, or can do, under exceptional circum- 
stances, but what Roman Catholicism is as to 
its essential quality, that chiefly concerns us. 
To understand clearly the questions at issue be- 
tween Romanism and modern civilization, we 
must separate the extrinsic from the intrinsic, 
we must keep clear of that fatal confusion of 
ideas which very often confounds distinctions 
which are radically distinct and irreconcilable. 

If we dwell with pleasure on the virtues of 
Saint Charles Borromeo, we ought also to remem- 
ber that the religion which produced him also pro- 
duced the priest Fra Farina, who attempted to 
assassinate this holy man while he was celebrat- 
ing the evening service. If we admire the hu- 
mility, abnegation, and tenderness of Saint Fran- 
cis of Assisi, we must not forget that the poverty 
which he espoused had been, according to 
Dante, a widow for eleven hundred years. It 
is certainly eminently proper that we should 



104 ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



yield our willing admiration to those beautiful 
souls within the pale of the Roman Catholic 
Church whose example is indeed a beacon light 
amid the storms and discouragements of life ; 
but it is highly improper to confound what is ex- 
ceptional with what is general. In the treatment 
of our present subject it is a matter of secondary 
importance whether there are or are not individ- 
ual members in the Roman Catholic Church 
whose zeal and purity put the majority of Prot- 
elslants to the blush ; but it is a matter of pri- 
mary importance whether or not there is such an 
inherent antagonism between the essential prin- 
ciples of Roman Catholicism and the essential 
principles of modern civilization as to render 
reconciliation impossible. 

Of course it is possible, as experience proves, 
for these two antagonistic forces to co-exist ; 
but to suppose that the interests of the one can 
be advanced without injury to the interests of 
the other, or that they can co-exist for any time 
without coming into collision, is to suppose an 
impossibility. 

Carried out to its logical consequences, Ro- 
manism reduces man to intellectual and spiritual 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



slavery ; it is dogmatic, imperious, and unpro- 
gressive. Properly understood, modern civiliza- 
tion is the expression of the mind's best energies 
blossoming under the sunshine of intellectual 
freedom and spiritual liberty. Not only are 
these two forces unlike each other in spirit and 
purpose : they are absolutely irreconcilable in 
their antagonism ; and in view of this fact claim 
our special attention in dealing with our present 
subject. 



CHAPTER V. 

NATURE OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ROMAN- 
ISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 

FOLLOWING the line of thought suggested in 
the preceding pages, and endeavoring to sepa- 
rate as carefully as possible merely superficial 
differences from those which are radical and 
essential, it is perhaps important that we should 
examine still more closely the nature of those 
opposing forces which render Romanism and 
Protestantism the natural enemies of each other. 
That there are differences existing between 



io6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



these two systems seems to be generally regarded 
as a fact admitting of no dispute. But the trou- 
ble is, these differences are not sufficiently 
realized as to their depth and far-reaching char- 
acter. We are too apt to treat the subject su- 
perficially ; and, in doing so, we necessarily fall 
into a slovenly habit of thought which blunts 
our perceptions and enfeebles our judgment. 
In the exercise of our ordinary powers of obser- 
vation we cannot help seeing that there does ex- 
ist an antagonism between Romanism and Prot- 
estantism ; but such is the measure of our ob- 
tuseness that we do not see in its true light the 
importance of the consequences involved in the 
conflict between these two forces. Failing to 
understand Romanism as it is, we simply regard 
it as a hoary system of error which we can easily 
afford to treat with contempt, thus strengthen- 
ing our adversary in the display of our igno- 
rance. In other words, having blundered in the 
past in regard to the meaning and designs of 
Romanism, we still continue to rub our drowsy 
eyes and gape at vacancy. Persistently regard- 
ing Romanism as a comparatively harmless form 
of religion, we fail to see that, to be properly 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 107 



understood, it must be regarded as a vast eccle- 
siastical system claiming absolute supremacy 
over man's spiritual and intellectual nature. 

In fact, so sweeping are the claims of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church, that the orbis Romanus of 
antiquity is a mere dwarf compared with the 
pretensions of the Roman pontiff. Ambitious 
as ancient Rome was, we look in vain for any- 
thing which even approaches the present auda- 
cious claims of the Pope as the head of the 
Church. 

It is true the importance of ancient Rome 
sunk itself so deeply into the minds of the early 
Christians, that we find some of the Fathers of 
the Church regarding the subversion of the Ro- 
man dominion as the precursor of anti-Christ, 
and the signal for the final catastrophe in the 
world's history. But what is this compared with 
the blasphemous presumption which induces 
Roman Catholic writers to claim for the Pope 
equality with God ? 1 In reality the present 
claims of the Papacy are of such a character as 

1 " It is not our will, it is the will of God, whose place 
we occupy on earth." — His Holiness, Pope Pius IX. By M, 
J. Rhodes. 



io8 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



to admit of no limit whatever. In promulgating 
the dogma of infallibility the late Pope placed 
himself and the Church of Rome in a position 
which admits of no question. Under the guise 
of spiritual authority he laid the foundations of 
an imperium super imperium, the like of which 
the world has never known before. 

In a council packed with Ultramontanes, and 
dexterously governed by that intriguing spirit 
which is the leading characteristic of Ultramon- 
tanism, Pius IX. had himself declared the infal- 
lible head of the Church, and as such the supe- 
rior of all governments. In dealing with this 
subject, it is of little use for Romanists to argue 
that the dogma of infallibility is nothing new, 
and therefore ought not to excite any alarm. 
To some extent it is undoubtedly true that 
" the doctrine of pontifical infallibility, theolog- 
ically considered, is intimately connected with 
the pontifical supremacy ; and considered his- 
torically it is seen that from the exercise of the 
supremacy was gradually evolved and finally 
asserted the prerogative of infallibility. It is 
perhaps even true that the definition by the Vat- 
ican Council " has only added the extrinsic cer- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 109 



tainty of universal promulgation, binding the 
whole Church to believe the dogma explicitly/' 
Clearly enough it is possible for us to acquiesce 
in both these propositions without in the least 
removing the most objectionable features of in- 
fallibility. 

From the moment Pius IX., amid the ominous 
darkness and thunder of heaven, 1 had himself 
proclaimed a god, and insisted on being so rec- 
ognized under pain of everlasting anathema, the 
civilized world has had a momentous question 
thrust upon it which it cannot avoid if it would. 
No matter whether we associate infallibility 
with impeccability or not. Standing alone the 
doctrine of infallibility claims exemption from all 
those conditions which render change necessary. 
Standing alone it aspires to rule the world, and 
in the measure of its claims far exceeds every- 
thing in the way of arrogance and presumptuous- 

1 The moment had arrived when he was to declare himself 
invested with the attributes of God — nay, a God upon earth. 
Looking from a distance into the hall, which was obscured by 
a tempest, nothing was visible but the golden mitre of the 
Pope ; and so thick was the darkness, that a servitor was 
compelled to bring a lighted candle and hold it by his side, to 
enable him to read the formula by which he deified himself." 
— New York Tribune, August nth, 1870. 



no 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ness that has gone before it. In spite of all the 
ingenuity and sophistry which have been em- 
ployed in its defence, it is really a very danger- 
ous doctrine, which cannot be too carefully 
watched and guarded against. 

According to Dr. Dollinger, " it imposes upon 
those who accept it the solemn obligation to 
violate civil law, to set themselves in opposition 
to the ordinances of government whenever the 
Pope shall pronounce his infallible judgment 
against any one of those ordinances upon moral 
or religious grounds/ ' As an offset to this un- 
pleasant outlook it is useless to argue, as is some- 
times done, that the infallibility of the Pope ap- 
plies only to " faith and morals." 

From its very nature infallibility such as the 
Pope claims must be absolute. Indeed, it is 
declared by a very eminent Roman Catholic 
authority to be so, " inasmuch as it can be cir- 
cumscribed by no human or ecclesiastical law." 1 

To the same purpose also speaks the formal 
decree of anathema pronounced on all who deny 
that the Roman Pontiff has " full and supreme 
power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, 

1 The Vatican Council and Its Definitions. Manning. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Ill 



not only in things which belong .to faith and 
morals, but also in those which relate to the dis- 
cipline and government of the Church spread 
throughout the world.' ' In this connection it 
is true that Pius IX. no longer occupies St. 
Peter's chair, while it must also be conceded 
that his successor has shown some signs of being 
less under Ultramontane influence. This, how- 
ever, is really no reason why we should expect 
to see the Romish Church suddenly undergo a 
radical change for the better. Pius IX. is gone, 
but Rome remains. She is " ever the same." 
She may bend, but she will not break. She has 
the rare faculty of waiting and watching, but we 
deceive ourselves if we suppose that the old 
spirit is ever really asleep. Knowing the value 
of opportunity, Romanism may seem to slum- 
ber, but in that seeming slumber there is very 
often more danger than there is in a direct and 
open attack. Here, as in other respects, 

" Appearances deceive, 
And this one maxim is a standing rule- 
Men are not what they seem." 

Of course, I do not pretend to say that the pres- 
ent Pope is not sincere in his desire to make 



112 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



certain improvements within the Church ; but a 
momentary glance at the history of Romanism 
ought to be sufficient to convince us that ref- 
ormation within the Church does not mean the 
removal of those characteristics which render 
Roman Catholicism obnoxious to Protestants. 
Neither does reformation within the Church of 
Rome mean the relaxation of those energies 
which are constantly on the alert to check the 
growth of Protestantism. Besides, the simple 
fact that Leo XIII. is not an Ultramontane is 
by no means sufficient to warrant us in thinking 
that the death - knell of Ultramontanism has 
sounded. The present Pope may be perfectly 
sincere in his desire to inaugurate a conciliatory 
policy, but it is not too much to say that the 
unscrupulous and crafty spirit which controlled 
Pius IX. will in the end assert its supremacy 
under the new pontificate. In fact there is a 
certain intimacy and interdependence between 
Ultramontanism and the Romanism of the pres- 
ent day which renders it necessary that the pol- 
icy of the Pope should be governed, if not pri- 
marily influenced, by the Ultramontane party. 
In reality, the present logic of the Roman Cath- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



"3 



olic Church leads irresistibly to Ultramontanism, 
and it is therefore idle for us to suppose that the 
efforts of Leo XIII., however well intentioned, 
are about to relieve us of the dangerous aggres- 
siveness and insolent pretensions of the Ultra- 
montanes. What is known as Gallicanism in 
the Church of Rome is so nearly defunct that 
little or no assistance can be expected from that 
quarter. Gradually but surely Ultramontanism 
has obtained the ascendency, and there can be 
little doubt that it means to retain it. As far 
as any voice in the government of the Church is 
concerned, Gallicanism is practically reduced to 
silence ; while Ultramontanism seeks to set its 
foot defiantly on the neck of the State, and in 
the insolence of its pretensions repudiates all 
that has been accomplished through the benign 
influences of Protestantism. In the discussion 
of our present subject it matters not whether or 
not there is a large party among the Roman 
Catholic laity which has no sympathy with the 
arrogant claims of the Ultramontanes. In its 
present conflict with Protestantism, Roman 
Catholicism is undoubtedly directed by the nar- 
rowness and intense hatred which Ultramontan- 



ii4 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



ism is known to have for liberty in all its forms. 
While the Church of Rome has always been op- 
posed to the advancement of liberty, it is char- 
acteristic of it, under the present Ultramontane 
domination, that the feeling of hatred toward 
liberty has been intensified, and the antagonism 
rendered more uncompromising and aggressive. 
Calling to its aid the crafty policy of the Jesuits, 
it does not hesitate to invade the most cherished 
principles of freedom and the most sacred and 
inalienable rights of the individual. In the 
striking words of Bishop Coxe of Western New 
York : " The whole tree is deadly. The serpent 
nature of Jesuitism finds in it its congenial 
abode, embraces the whole trunk with its folds, 
and uplifts its subtle head triumphantly amid 
the branches. Let us understand, then, the 
nature of the new Romanism, which the Jesuits 
are planting so vigorously in our great cities, 
and more especially in the West. It is not the 
Romanism of Bossuet. By a cunning economy, 
Carrol and Cheverus, who were fine specimens 
of that school, were first sent over to beguile us 
with delusive ideas of a possible conformity with 
republican institutions. Now we have cardinals 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



1 X S 



and archbishops, one and all the bond-slaves of 
Jesuitism ; not one of them, not even Kenrick 
of St. Louis, who alone has uttered a manly 
word, daring to say his soul and conscience are 
his own. Every one of them is committed to 
the Syllabus ; all reduced, by their oaths to the 
pontiff, to make themselves the mere emissaries 
of a power which is the sworn enemy of every 
free thought, and above all of every constitu- 
tional government ; to which Cavours and Wash- 
ington alike are damnable ; which intrigues to 
overthrow the French Republic, and refuses the 
last sacraments to those who pray for King 
Humbert and Victor Emmanuel. The Papacy 
is no more, it is true, what it has been ; but as 
the symbol of Jesuitism its tiara and keys are 
not less formidable than before. ' Romanism 
will survive Rome and this survival is the 
phenomenon which theologians and statesmen 
should now meet with new weapons, and con- 
tend with unto the death, as the common enemy 
of truth, morality, and enlightenment/ ' 1 

Nor does this strong language place the sub- 
ject in an exaggerated light. Unwelcome as 

1 Princeton Review \ March, 1878. 



n6 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



this language may be to some persons, the facts 
are precisely as Bishop Coxe states them. It 
certainly is not pleasant to feel that the society 
which Clement XIV. set his face against, and 
whose maxims he pronounced in his pontifical 
brief as " scandalous, and manifestly contrary 
to good morals,' ' is rapidly growing in influence 
among us. But the fact still remains, unwel- 
come though it be. 

Of course, it is possible that Jesuitism may 
carry the policy of Rome too far, and that in its 
designs there may exist that " vaulting ambition 
which o'erleaps itself, " but we sadly mistake the 
present attitude of the Church of Rome if we 
suppose that it contemplates anything short of 
a complete dethronement of Protestantism. 
Quite as well as we do they know the present 
strength of Protestant civilization. But this 
only furnishes them a greater incentive to press 
forward in their work of subversion through 
Jesuitical agencies. No matter whether there is 
any chance of immediate success or not. This 
is not properly the question before us. Even if 
it should take Rome a hundred years to make 
any important change in the quality of our na- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



117 



tional life, this surely does not relieve us from 
those duties which belong to the present time 
— duties which are certainly neglected when we 
leave our Protestant privileges to take care of 
themselves, as though, by some magical power, 
they possessed that which grants them perpetual 
immunity from danger. 

Looking around us and realizing the strength 
and bright promise of that movement which has 
so completely changed the face of the world 
within the last three hundred years, it would be 
absurd to suppose that Romanism can at once 
demolish those principles which now form the 
very life and soul of our national existence. 
But it is by no means an absurdity to suppose 
that Romanism can, by a well-directed system 
of insidious attacks, gradually undermine those 
foundations on which now rests the fairest tem- 
ple ever consecrated to the cause of liberty and 
progress. 

In dealing with the present growth of Roman 
Catholicism and the relation which it bears to 
the interests of Protestant civilization, I am 
aware that there is a sense in which the Church 
of Rome presents itself to us as one of those 



Ii8 ROMAN CATHOLICISM 

bridges of thought and feeling by which the 
present is connected with the past. And as 
this is a phase of the subject which may 
mislead us, we cannot too carefully distinguish 
between that hoariness of Roman Catholicism 
which commands the respect of all unprejudiced 
minds, and that dangerous subtlety by which 
Roman Catholicism in its old age seeks to de- 
stroy Protestantism in its youth. Closely iden- 
tified with the cultivation and progress of art, 
and in many instances the beacon-light of hope 
and encouragement to the weary and broken- 
hearted, we cannot shut our eyes to the memo- 
ries and associations which cluster around the 
name of the Church of Rome. To attempt this 
would be to outrage our better nature, and at 
the same time to injure our own cause by refus- 
ing to recognize and admit the truth. In mak- 
ing these concessions to Roman Catholicism, we 
do not, however, exonerate it from the charge 
of having been the enemy of liberty in the past, 
and of being at the present time the great ad- 
versary of those principles without which the 
continued success of our government is impos- 
sible. Treating it, as to one side of its charac- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 119 

ter, with that philosophic impartiality which rec- 
ognizes that all forms of religion are deserving 
of respectful consideration, we are bound to 
treat it, as to the other side of its character, with 
suspicion, caution, and a careful preparation 
against danger. 

Representing in some respects the gradual 
evolution of the human mind in its dealings with 
the awful problem of eternity, it also represents 
the gradual establishment of a sacerdotal tyran- 
ny which has sought at every opportunity to 
crush the rising spirit of liberty, and to keep the 
world under the bondage of priestcraft and super- 
stition. And herein — in this latter characteristic 
— lies the real cause of the antagonism which 
every earnest Protestant feels toward the en- 
croaching power of the Roman Catholic hier- 
archy. Properly understood, popery is, as Mil- 
ton says, " a double thing to deal with and 
in view of this fact it is not to be supposed that 
Protestants can sit tamely down and accept its 
growth without remonstrance or resistance. In 
other words, Romanism having usurped the 
privilege of governing, and then proceeding to 
govern on the strength of its usurpation, it is es- 



120 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



sentially of such a character as to preclude the 
possibility of reconciling it with those principles 
of freedom and energy which are the necessary 
concomitants of our national life. 

As a matter of fact, what we need to keep be- 
fore our minds is that Romanism is the enemy 
of progress and enlightenment, not so much on 
account of this or that particular doctrine, but 
because it is as a system opposed to the Divine 
mandate, " Let there be light/' 

Steadily, and it must be said wisely, adhering 
to the conviction that priestly domination re- 
quires ignorance and superstition as conditions 
essential to its growth and perpetuity, it is both 
natural and inevitable that the Church of Rome 
should seek to give the world an impetus which, 
if unchecked, would carry it in an entirely differ- 
ent direction from that which the interests of 
progress and culture demand. From the nature 
of things this must be so. Nor will it do for us 
to suppose that Romanism is in this respect less 
dangerous now than it was when the Pope's 
temporal power was in the meridian of its glory. 

To use the words of another : "It must never 
be forgotten that Rome's temporal power was 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



121 



probably not diminished, but rather extended, 
by the loss of the miserable Italian temporal 
sovereignty which is often ignorantly confounded 
with it. She can now claim to be more 4 emi- 
nently spiritual ' than ever. She is vigorously 
pushing her interests in every direction, sapping 
constitutions and fomenting the jealousies of 
states. She is aiming at a Royalist restoration 
in France, and dazzling the malcontents of Ire- 
land by the prospect of thereby rescuing them 
from the jaws of ' perfidious Albion.' She is 
seeking, in insulting defiance of the Treaty of 
Union, to establish her hierarchy even in the 
country of John Knox, that she may there fur- 
ther her propagandism, and at least place Scotch 
Romanists under canon law, governing them as 
a community within a community, directly from 
Rome, in all matters pertaining to marriage, 
burial, vows, prison discipline, mortmain, and 
the like. In view of all this, the greatest vigi- 
lance is required. Rome's crooked policy has 
always been a thorn in the side of states ; and 
never has it been more dangerous than it is to- 
day." 1 

1 Princeton Reviezv, March, 1878. 



122 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Indeed, if we carefully consider the subject it 
will be easily seen how thoroughly the policy of 
the late Pope succeeded in alienating Rome from 
all those tendencies which make up the spirit of 
modern thought. Stone walls and a foreign 
prison may have severed other popes from the 
Roman people, but never before did any Pope 
so completely separate himself from surround- 
ing conditions, or so presumptuously set the 
spirit of the age at defiance. Weak in his intel- 
lectual character, and as bold in dogma as he 
was timid in action, Pius IX. has left us a Ro- 
manism which is even more impudently bold and 
uncompromising than anything the history of 
the Papacy has ever exhibited before. By its 
refusal to recognize any good in the progressive 
spirit which has liberated Italy and consolidated 
Germany, the Church of Rome has placed itself 
in direct opposition to two of the most impor- 
tant events of modern times, while it has also, 
by the vehemence of its anathemas, manifestly 
shown how readily it would enslave the world, 
had it the power to do so. 1 

1 According to Dr. Hodge, " One of the encyclical letters 
of the present Pope so openly denied the liberty of conscience, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Of course, the Church of Rome has the un- 
questionable right to oppose anything which 
conflicts with its interests ; but when, as in the 
present conflict between it and Protestantism, 
the issues are of such a character as to strike 
down to the very root-principles of freedom and 
allegiance to the State, it is high time that w r e 
realize the meaning of those Romish encroach- 
ments at which a vapid indifference stares va- 
cantly and unmeaningly. That Romanism is 
not as powerful in some respects as it has been 
at other stages of its history is perfectly true. 
But to lay aside Protestant vigilance on this ac- 
count is to commit an act of short-sightedness 
which cannot fail to produce disastrous conse- 
quences. Powerless as the thunder of the Vati- 
can is in comparison to what it has been, the 
Church of Rome still retains its old character. 
Surrounded by a wall of dogmatism which ex- 
cludes all those influences that have given to 

the liberty of the press, and the lawfulness of tolerating 
any other religion than that of Rome, that the late Emperor 
of the French forbade its publication in France ; yet the Arch- 
bishop of New York read it in his cathedral to an immense 
and approving audience." — Systematic Theology, vol. iii., p. 
561. 



124 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Protestantism its progressive tendency, the 
Church of Rome occupies a position which 
means, as far as Protestantism is concerned, 
nothing short of untiring and uncompromising 
opposition. 

As an answer to this, and as an explanation 
of the causes of this antagonism, it avails noth- 
ing for Roman Catholic writers to urge that the 
Church of Rome, being the repository of truth, 
is necessarily right ; while Protestantism, being 
" simply absurd, and, what is worse, sinful/' is 
as necessarily wrong. 

Unfortunately for the advocates of Roman- 
ism, this impudent assertion is not sustained by 
facts. It is simply a repetition of that insolent 
air of imagined superiority which has character- 
ized the Church of Rome in all ages, and is 
glaringly at variance with the facts of the case. 
It would perhaps be asking too much to ask Ro- 
man Catholic writers to concede to Protestant- 
ism all that it is justly entitled to ; but surely 
it is not asking too much to ask them to seek 
new weapons in the armory of facts instead of 
wilfully perverting history in order that they 
may maintain an untenable position. Even if 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



* 2 5 



we abandon the well-founded claim that the Ref- 
ormation gave a new impetus to the world by 
enlarging the horizon of human thought and as- 
piration, the indictment against Roman Cathol- 
icism is fully sustained by testimony which can- 
not be contradicted. 

For the sake of argument we will admit that 
there may have been some ground for the com- 
plaints of Erasmus as to the diminished interest 
in literature under Protestantism. Having con- 
ceded this, we do not, however, set aside those 
facts which show themselves to any one who 
compares those countries under Roman Cathol- 
icism with those countries under Protestantism. 
It is quite possible for Protestants to admit, 
without injury to their cause, that there was a 
time when the Lutheran movement, in view of 
its intense religious earnestness, affected ad- 
versely those studies in which Erasmus and the 
Humanists took special delight. But it is not 
possible for Roman Catholicism to face the 
charges which can be proved against it, without 
feeling that its impudent assertions are un- 
founded. 

In support of these charges against the Church 



126 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



of Rome it would be possible to furnish many 
witnesses, but for our present purpose we will 
content ourselves with listening to one who cer- 
tainly cannot be accused of narrowness or big- 
otry. " The loveliest and most fertile provinces 
of Europe/' says Macaulay, " have, under her 
rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, 
and in intellectual torpor, while Protestant coun- 
tries, once proverbial for sterility and barbarism, 
have been turned by skill and industry into gar- 
dens, and can boast of a long list of heroes and 
statesmen, philosophers and poets. Whoever, 
knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are, 
and what, four hundred years ago, they actually 
were, shall now compare the country round 
Rome with the country round Edinburgh, will 
be able to form some judgment as to the tend- 
ency of papal domination. The descent of 
Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the 
lowest depths of degradation ; the elevation of 
Holland, in spite of many natural disadvantages, 
to a position such as no commonwealth so small 
has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Who- 
ever passes in Germany from a Roman Catholic 
to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



127 



a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ire- 
land from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant 
county, finds that he has passed from a lower to 
a higher grade of civilization. On the other 
side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The 
Protestants of the United States have left far 
behind them the Roman Catholics of Mexico, 
Peru, and Brazil. The Roman Catholics of 
Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole 
continent round them is in a ferment with 
Protestant activity and enterprise. The French 
have doubtless shown an energy and an intelli- 
gence which, even when misdirected, have justly 
entitled them to be called a great people. But 
this apparent exception, when examined, will 
be found to confirm the rule ; for in no country 
that is called Roman Catholic has the Roman 
Catholic Church during several generations pos- 
sessed so little authority as in France/ ' 1 

In these remarks it will be seen that Macau- 
lay presents, with his usual perspicuity, the char- 
acteristic difference between Romanism and 
Protestantism. While the one, in its inertness, 
impedes the course of progress, the other, in 

1 History of England. Harper's edition, vol. i., p. 45. 



128 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



obedience to its active and masculine tendencies, 
moves forward like Alexander seeking new 
worlds to conquer. By candidly and impartially 
examining the facts of the case, we are led to 
the irresistible conclusion that Protestantism in- 
fuses strength, hope, and aspiration into those 
nations under its influence ; whereas Romanism, 
in its vast immobility, overshadows the mind, 
and would have the world move forward only 
on the crutches of ecclesiastical dogma. As an 
answer to these statements it may perhaps be 
urged by Roman Catholic apologists that the 
golden age of Spanish literature was the age 
when Protestantism was most completely 
crushed, and the Church of Rome enjoyed un- 
limited power. 

That this is so is not to be denied ; but be- 
fore we form any hasty conclusion on the 
strength of this fact, it will be well for us to look 
at the other side of the picture. If this was the 
golden age of Spanish literature, it was also the 
period of decay. Being without the essentials 
of permanence, the blossoming period soon gave 
way to that spirit of lethargy which inevitably 
follows the undisputed sway of ecclesiastical 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



129 



tyranny. Referring to the books published in 
this period, Ticknor says : " They bore every- 
where marks of the subjection to which the 
press and those who wrote for it were alike re- 
duced. From the abject title-pages and dedica- 
tions of the authors themselves, through the 
crowd of certificates collected from their friends 
to establish the orthodoxy of works that were 
often as little connected with religion as fairy 
tales, down to the colophon, supplicating pardon 
for any unconscious neglect of the authority of 
the Church, or any too free use of classical my- 
thology, we are continually oppressed with 
painful proofs, not only how completely the hu- 
man mind was enslaved in Spain, but how 
grievously it had become cramped and crippled 
by the chains it had so long worn. " 1 

Turning from this, how different are the con- 
ditions under the glorious Elizabethan age ? 
Here we witness not merely a brief period of 
blossoming, and then a long and barren winter* 
relieved from its death-like silence only by what 
Taine calls " the infantine or snuffling voices of 
the middle age." Instead of this, new forces 

1 History of Spanish Literature, vol. i., p. 470. 



i3° 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



are generated, a new impulse is given to human- 
ity, and the world moves forward with the fresh- 
ness of youth and the vigorousness of manhood. 
From that age the glorious constellation com- 
prising Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, Hooker, 
and Raleigh still looks down upon us, its bright- 
ness undiminished by the march of time and 
the distance of centuries. Coming into exist- 
ence under circumstances which, taken in con- 
nection with the mystery of genius, explain the 
secret of its power and influence over the mod- 
ern world, the age of Elizabeth proves conclu- 
sively the value of those tremendous energies 

« 

which rendered the Reformation possible. It 
sustains the views urged on behalf of a large and 
comprehensive culture as one of our principal 
needs ; while it also, in demonstrating the su- 
preme value of intellectual forces, strengthens 
our previous charges against Romanism as the 
enemy of liberty and progress. 

From its very nature, Protestantism is com- 
pelled to keep pace with the march of ages and 
the growing demands of the human mind ; 
whereas Romanism is always the same in its 
narrowness and its immobility. While the one 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 131 



enlarges, expands, and acquires additional 
strength with every triumph of man's intellect- 
ual powers, the other growls sullenly in its dog- 
matism, wanting only the power to crush the 
rising spirit of liberty and progress. While the 
one is intolerant, inflexible, and uncompromis- 
ing, the other adapts itself to the needs of pro- 
gressive thought, and in its tolerance and flexi- 
bility furnishes the strongest evidence of its 
suitableness to an enlightened nation. It is 
unfortunately true that Protestantism has in 
some instances -given rise to an ecclesiastical 
tyranny as unjustifiable as that which is charged 
against Rome ; but even with this admission in 
view it is not to be denied that there have 
always been certain forces at work within the 
bosom of Protestantism which have preserved 
those catholic and comprehensive principles so 
essential to modern culture and our progress as 
a nation. Indeed, it is precisely because Prot- 
estantism has clearly discerned the true relation 
of Christianity to culture and civilization, that 
it commends itself most fully to all intelligent 
minds as the religion of an enlightened and 
progressive people. That it has much to learn 



132 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



and much to unlearn no one will deny ; but that 
it has immense and numerous advantages over 
Romanism is to any candid mind so clear as to 
admit of no dispute. 

I know it is the fashion for some who are not 
avowed Romanists to call Protestantism a fail- 
ure, and to accuse it of being " an ocean of con- 
jecture but as writers of this class present the 
extraordinary phenomenon of being really Ro- 
manists while they are nominally Protestants, it 
is needless to add that their arguments are un- 
worthy of consideration on account of their in- 
consistency and insincerity. 

By these writers the religious world is divided 
into three bodies — the Roman Catholic, the 
Catholic, and the Protestant ; they professing 
to belong to the second of these bodies. Disre- 
garding the essentially Protestant character of 
the Church of England, and therefore also of 
the Episcopal Church in this country, they al- 
low their Ritualistic zeal to carry them into a 
position which, if true, leaves the Reformation 
responsible " without excuse for the great schism 
of the last three hundred years. " Had they the 
power, these Ritualists would gladly sacrifice 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 133 

the grand principles of the Reformation to their 
ceremonial forms, their genuflections, and the 
color of their ecclesiastical petticoats. Placing 
the extrinsic above the intrinsic, and the acci- 
dental and subsidiary above the permanent and 
essentia], these zealots leave out the most im- 
portant facts in connection with the growth of 
Protestantism and its influence on the church 
to which they nominally belong. 

"But," says a writer in one of the ablest 
foreign quarterlies, " the great crises of history 
are sufficiently characterized by their conse- 
quences, and by the broad facts which accom- 
pany them and follow them ; and, judged by 
this test, there can be no mistaking the nature 
of the prolonged crisis in European affairs which 
is designated as the Reformation. In no coun- 
try whatever, and still less in Europe at large, 
was it a mere question of the removal of abuses 
or the correction of theological inaccuracies. 
. . . After a period of hesitation, not unworthy 
of a nation which was capable of realizing the 
gravity of the issue, and which could appreciate 
the truths to which both parties were attached, 
the whole force of England was thrown on the 



134 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Protestant side. It was Elizabeth's supreme 
merit, amidst whatever doubts or weaknesses, 
to choose, and to choose decisively, one side in 
the contest, and that the Protestant side ; and 
the story of the Spanish Armada marks the 
crisis at which England was finally recognized as 
the head of the Protestant nations of Europe. 
Another long period of wavering succeeded ; 
but even through the Stuart times the Protest- 
ant connection which had been established by 
Elizabeth was too strong to be broken ; and 
Charles II., in order to regain his crown, found 
3t necessary to pledge himself, in the most un- 
reserved language, to the support of the Protest- 
ant religion. ... At the present moment 
her Majesty holds her crown by a statutory title, 
which prescribes that the sovereigns of England 
must be descended from the Protestant branch 
of the royal family ; and every monarch, in the 
coronation service, is pledged to maintain ' the 
Protestant Reformed Religion established by 
Law.' In a word, the history of England, from 
the time when the division between Protestant- 
ism and Roman Catholicism was finally establish- 
ed, has been united with that of Protestantism 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



!35 



and of the Protestant nations ; and, so far as the 
nation at large is concerned, that union is irre- 
versible. . . . When the clergy abjure Prot- 
estantism, they will abjure all sympathy with 
one of the primary movements of English life ; 
their church will cease to be the Church of Eng- 
land, and they will sink into the condition of an 
Ultramontane priesthood amidst a contemptu- 
ous laity/' 1 

For the quotation of this article I make no 
apology, as it bears directly on the inconsistency 
of Ritualists in this country in their attempts to 
depreciate Protestantism. Here, as in England, 
Protestantism is an essential condition of na- 
tional life and national greatness, and it is there- 
fore for us to see that we do not allow transient 
and unimportant issues to conceal from us the 
supreme value of certain underlying principles 
which cannot exist if dissociated from Protestant- 
ism. In fact, if we keep before our minds the 
relationship existing between this country and 
Egland, it will be easily seen that, although we 
have not an established church, we cannot too 
carefully guard those interests which the Church 

1 London Quarterly Review, October, 1878. 



136 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM, 



of England represents. Whatever dissimilarity 
may exist between the two countries in other 
respects, they are at least alike in the fact that 
they both have a vital interest in the preservation 
and perpetuity of Protestantism as an essential 
condition of national life and national growth. 
Without Protestantism our own greatness and 
that of England would have been impossible. 
Without a continuation of those energizing 
forces which came into the world with the dawn 
of the Reformation, the future of both countries 
will almost certainly end in " a lame and impo- 
tent conclusion. 99 Under all circumstances let 
us therefore see to it that we cultivate that 
masculineness of thought which is the life-giving 
power of a great nation, and which at the same 
time shall warrant us in exclaiming in the con- 
sciousness of our strength — 

" Here the free spirit of mankind at length 

Throws its last letters off ; and who shall place 
A limit to the giant's unchained strength, 
Or curb his swiftness in the forward race ?" 



CHAPTER VI. 



OUR NATIONAL IDEAL, AND ITS RELATIONS " 
TO ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 

Accepting it as true on general principles 
that what we strive to be determines to a great 
extent what we already are, it follows that the 
quality of the ideal is a subject of no less impor- 
tance to nations than it is to individuals. In 
both instances the same forces are constantly at 
work, building up an edifice not made with 
hands, but infinitely more enduring than the 
strongest material substances could make it. 
In the one instance, as in the other, there is no 
escape from those laws which encompass man 
on the spiritual side of his existence ; and which, 
even amid the confusion, anomalies, and con- 
tradictions of history, reveal themselves as the 
great determining forces of individual and na- 
tional greatness. In the wise ordering of events, 
these conditions are absolutely inseparable from 
human life. They are in no sense arbitrary and 
irregular ; they are in the strictest sense natural 

i37 



138 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



and uniform. To suspend their action is out of 
our power ; to study them for the purpose of 
understanding them is our manifest duty. 

As the result of the inequalities of society and 
the unequal division of this world's advantages, 
it is true that a very large portion of the human 
race is compelled to drag its weary way along 
without having either time or capacity for un- 
derstanding the relations between the real and 
the ideal. But the relation exists nevertheless. 
Because ignorance, poverty, and vice exclude 
the glories of the intellectual world, they are 
none the less real on this account. It is per- 
haps in some respects unfortunate that the 
light emanating from the intellectual world 
should require, in order to be properly perceived, 
a clearness of mental vision which every one 
does not possess. But surely the light is for 
this reason no less real or beneficent in its na- 
ture. Groping our way for the most part in the 
dark, even the best of us rarely do more 
than accomplish very little. It may even be 
admitted that as often in despondency as in 
hope the greatest minds are cast back upon their 
insufficiency and inadequacy of power. Indeed, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



139 



such are the laws of human development, that 
it sometimes happens that the strongest intel- 
lects are driven in their distraction to the gloomy 
conclusions of pessimism and despair. There is 
truth as well as sadness in Matthew Arnold's 
poetry, when he says — 

" And though we wear out life, alas ! 
Distracted as a homeless wind, 
In beating where we may not pass, 
In seeking what we shall not find." 

But this does not destroy the beauty or the 
value of that ideal world in which cultivated 
nations as well as cultivated individuals live, 
move, and have their being. Under certain 
conditions the ideal seems, from its remoteness 
and apparent unattainableness, to be nothing 
more than a mocking delusion. But even this 
does not destroy its value as a means of culture. 
In the sphere of our spiritual consciousness, as 
in the sphere of our intellectual consciousness, 
it is not so much what we attain as what we 
endeavor to attain that makes us strong and 
healthy. Plato, realizing that success in the 
pursuit of knowledge is secondary to the advan- 
tages derived from the act of pursuing, has pro- 



140 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



foundly defined man as " the hunter of truth 
and the same conditions apply to man as an 
aspirant seeking the realization of a nobler and 
better life. In the pursuit of the ideal, as in the 
pursuit of knowledge, we must necessarily en- 
counter many difficulties and disappointments. 
But it will not do to mistake temporary discour- 
agement for permanent unfitness and disqualifi- 
cation. In proposing to ourselves the question, 
What is truth ? we know perfectly well that our 
intellectual powers cannot do more than furnish 
an answer which shall be approximately correct ; 
but we do not on this account abandon the in- 
quiry and sink into despair. Discouraging as 
the outlook sometimes is, we still persevere, 
and in our perseverance very often overcome 
difficulties which at first sight appeared insuper- 
able. 

We sometimes grow weary and dispirited, but 
we never give up the pursuit. Nor should we, 
in our pursuit of the ideal, be any less earnest 
and persistent. No matter what our discour- 
agements may be, the necessity of cultivating 
the ideal is quite as great as the necessity of 
cultivating the intellectual. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



141 



Or, to put the same thing in another form, it 
is quite true to say that the one necessarily em- 
braces the other ; for as the intellectual cannot 
be perfect without the ideal to encourage and 
sustain it, neither can the ideal be perfect with- 
out the intellectual on which to rest the founda- 
tion of its hopes and aspirations. In point of fact, 
the two forces are interdependent and equally es- 
sential to human development. Nor do we over- 
estimate the value of this interdependence and 
its indispensableness to civilization and culture, 
when we state that the principle applies to na- 
tions quite as much as to individuals. 

In the larger life of the nation, as in the 
smaller life of the individual, the same forces 
are constantly at work. And thus it is that 
in treating the subject of Romanism we can- 
not too clearly realize the influence which it is 
likely to exert on the character of our national 
ideal. 

If, as a nation, we are merely drifting listlessly 
down the stream of time without any definite 
aim and without an intelligent appreciation of 
those conditions which govern the ideal side of 
our life, we may rest assured that it will not be 



142 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



very long before we reap the consequences of 
our folly and indifference. 

If, however, on the other hand, we are still 
governed by the principles of manliness and 
heroism which gave us our national existence, 
we may equally rest assured that the existence 
of these principles involves the existence of an 
ideal which shall fitly express the bright promise 
of our youth and the far-reaching possibilities of 
our manhood. Nor can we define too clearly 
what this ideal is, and what are the conditions 
by which its value may be enhanced or impaired, 
as the case may be. 

Freeing ourselves as far as possible from the 
din and confusion which characterize the daily 
life of this busy metropolis, let us endeavor to 
realize as clearly as we can the importance of 
the ideal and its necessary influence on our at- 
tainments in the present and our hopes for the 
future. To do this is not to separate ourselves 
from the stern realities of life, or to rise in utter 
forgetfulness of our duties to a state of perpetual 
tranquillity, 

" Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind, 
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



*43 



To accomplish our purpose we need something 
more than a lofty indifference which separates 
us from the great current of human life and 

the still sad music of humanity." Without 
in any way separating ourselves from the stern 
realities of life by which we are surrounded, it is 
possible for us to rise through a proper appre- 
ciation of the ideal to a wider and deeper con- 
ception of our responsibilities and privileges. 
Without undervaluing the real, we can cer- 
tainly correctly estimate the importance of the 
ideal and the function it performs in the devel- 
opment of our national life ; we can certainly ap- 
preciate the great value of those forces which 
govern the higher life of humanity. 

In other words, the appreciation of the ideal 
does not necessitate the depreciation of the real ; 
it simply requires that we, as intelligent beings, 
should properly understand the conditions by 
which human life is governed. In dealing with 
the ideal which relates more particularly to art, 
it is well enough for us to say with Taine, that 
"we then think of the vague and beautiful 
dream by which is expressed the deepest senti- 
ment ; we scarcely breath it in the lowest voice, 



144 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



with a kind of subdued enthusiasm ; when we 
speak of it otherwise it is in verse, in a canticle ; 
we dwell on it reverentially, with clasped hands, 
as if it concerned happiness, heaven, or love. " 
In dealing with the ideal which relates to our 
higher consciousness and the quality of our indi- 
vidual and national life, we must, however, go 
beyond this, and attempt an analysis of the 
elements of which this ideal is composed. In 
doing this we are not called upon to cast aside 
the mantle of tenderness which art throws 
around its ideal ; but we are called upon to un- 
derstand as clearly as we can why our ideal is 
what it is, and what are the conditions on which 
its growth in strength and beauty depend. 

As I have already said, we cannot expect to 
bring the real up to the ideal, even if we succeed 
in obtaining a clear and definite idea as to its 
character. This is, however, no reason why we 
should not endeavor to understand it. There is 
a sense in which the impossibility of the ideal is 
its strongest recommendation ; but there is also 
a sense in which the success of the real depends 
very largely upon a proper appreciation of those 
forces which relate to the higher consciousness 
of humanity. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



MS 



And it is precisely in this sense that an exam- 
ination into the conditions governing our na- 
tional ideal is, in view of our present subject, 
of such great importance 

Passing over all the extraneous and incidental 
issues growing out of the relation between the 
real and the ideal, we are, in dealing with the 
subject before us, brought face to face with a 
fundamental principle which we cannot set aside 
if we would, and which we ought not to set 
aside if we could. 

Touching, as it does, many of our highest and 
most vital interests, the question comes before 
us as one which we are bound to consider. 

As a nation we owe our existence to certain 
broad and comprehensive principles which, after 
having struggled through the ages, found at last 
their fitting expression at our birth. Between 
our birth and the ages preceding it there is no 
hiatus, no break in the chain of cause and effect, 
no unnatural revolution bringing us to the sur- 
face and leaving us there to be ultimately lost 
amid the conflicting waves of ignorance and 
passion. Instead of this, we are what we are 
because we represent in an advanced form cer- 



146 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



tain principles which have always been in har- 
mony with the unfolding powers of the human 
mind no less than the progressive instincts of 
humanity. And as in the past so in the present. 

It is a mistake to suppose that in the great 
march of human events there is any such thing 
as fortuitous circumstance ; it is a still greater 
mistake to suppose that the great current of our 
national life moves otherwise than as it is im- 
pelled by its own inherent force and the nature 
of the tributary streams which supply it. And 
herein lies the necessity of our understanding 
where we stand in regard to our ideal and its 
probable influence on our future. In reality, no 
less than in appearance, are we jealously guard- 
ing those principles of courage, faith, hope, and 
moral strength, without which there can be no 
true greatness either in an individual or a na- 
tion ? In reality, no less than in appearance, do 
we realize the tremendous responsibility of our 
opportunities and privileges ? 

Rising above the vulgarism that contents it- 
self with the beating of drums and an occasional 
pyrotechnic display, are we cultivating the only 
conditions on which our welfare and stability 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



147 



depend ? In this respect there can be no middle 
ground, no neutral territory where the forces 
that dwarf and degrade us, and the forces that 
elevate and ennoble us, can lay down their arms 
in amity and indifference. If we are not in har- 
mony with conditions which render us progress- 
ive, we most certainly are in harmony with con- 
ditions which render us retrogressive. From 
this there is no escape ; and there ought to be 
no mistake respecting it. 

Without in the least depreciating the material 
conditions which have contributed so largely to 
make us what we are, there is every reason why 
we should seek below the surface of things for 
that more important life which touches the 
silent depths of our spiritual consciousness. It 
is true the movements of this life are for the 
most part noiseless, but this is, when properly 
considered, the strongest evidence of their tre- 
mendous power. 

Silent as is the movement of those influences 
which relate to our intellectual and spiritual 
life, they are nevertheless supremely potent in 
their character, and deeply significant in their 
consequences. 



148 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



They touch us in that part of our individual 
and national consciousness which, besides being 
the most sensitive, is immeasurably the greatest 
and most powerful force in the formation of our 
character and the determination of our possibil- 
ities in the future. 

Nations, like individuals, cannot rise above 
themselves. They may seem for a moment to 
be carried upward and onward by the waves of 
circumstance ; but this is simply an evanescent 
state which the inexorable conditions of law 
and order are sure in the long run to reverse. 
For a time shams may, and do, flourish ; but, 
just as surely as the night follows the day, 
they are sure in due course of time to be stripped 
of their borrowed plumage, and left to hobble 
along on their crutches as best they can. 

To be really great, we must do more than 
strut in borrowed feathers, swaggering as we 
strut, that bluster may be mistaken for strength. 
Realizing that every sham is an abomination 
which we cannot hate too strongly, we need to 
enter into a careful examination of those princi- 
ples which, besides being the foundations of 
character, are also the strongest arguments in 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



149 



favor of a progressive ideal. The more fully we 
realize these facts, the more clearly will we see 
that "the world is governed by its ideals." 
The more thoroughly we realize that " the 
world is governed by its ideals," the more 
clearly will we see that we, as a nation, are 
under certain responsibilities which we cannot 
escape from. And here we come to the direct 
question as to the measure of influence which 
Roman Catholicism exerts on the ideal side of 
our life. 

In answering, the question we touch the 
very pith and marrow of our subject. And this 
•for the following reasons : First, because the 
ideal side of our life is, as I have already at- 
tempted to show, of supreme importance ; sec- 
ond, because the Roman Catholic Church, with 
its usual shrewdness and foresight, knows per- 
fectly well that if it can only capture the ideal, 
it is only a question of time how soon it will 
capture the stronghold of the real. To the mind 
of this Church there exists no such thing as a 
great gulf separating the ideal from the real, and 
rendering them practically independent of each 
other. Indeed, it is precisely in this direction 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



that the Church of Rome exhibits most fully its 
wonderful sagacity in seizing upon opportunities 
which Protestantism fails to perceive. 

Of course, there is a sense in which the in- 
tensely practical character of Protestantism is of 
more value to the world than the intellectual 
insight which enables us to realize the impor- 
tance of the ideal. But, in admitting this, we 
must not forget that as long as we are inferior to 
the Church of Rome in our appreciation of those 
influences which lie beneath the surface, we in- 
evitably endanger to a great extent our present 
supremacy. Unaccustomed as we are to dwell 
on the importance of those influences which em- 
anate from the higher sphere of our intellectu- 
al and spiritual consciousness, we are too apt to 
overvalue the noisy and the unreal, and to un- 
dervalue the noiseless and the real. Instead of 
placing the spiritual above the material, we re- 
verse the conditions, and thus disqualify our- 
selves from forming a clear and intelligent judg- 
ment as to the nature of the forces by which 
human life is governed. In the hurry and ex- 
citement of the present age we seem to have 
lost in a great measure the capacity no less than 



IN THE UNITED STATES, 



the desire for introspection. We vote, wrangle, 
and prostrate ourselves before the shrine of 
Mammon ; but we do not realize that one 
mighty intellectual and spiritual influence is of 
infinitely more importance than the monetary 
fluctuations of Wall Street, or the changes in 
the political arena in Washington. Forgetting 
that the success of republican institutions de- 
pends very largely on the quality of the intel- 
lectual and spiritual forces which they assimilate, 
we seem to think that we have discharged our 
duty when we have launched these institutions 
into existence, and left them to take care of 
themselves as best they can. That we are 
suffering to-day from this mistaken view is, I 
think, beyond question. And therefore it is 
that in the treatment of our present subject it 
seems to me essential that we should consider 
the influences of Romanism and Protestantism 
on the character of our national ideal. If, 
through either ignorance or indifference, we al- 
low the Roman Catholic Church to so far seize 
upon the thoughts and feelings of our educated 
classes as to become a power in the formation of 
their ideal life, we may depend upon it we are 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



placing ourselves in a position which will cause 
us much trouble hereafter. Once let this Church 
become sufficiently powerful to impress itself 
upon the minds and hearts of those who wield 
the sceptre of intellectual sovereignty, and it 
amounts to a foregone conclusion that a change 
in the aims and purposes of our national life will 
be inevitable. As an answer to this it may be 
argued that it is precisely in this direction that 
Roman Catholicism has least chance of success. 
But is this really so ? Admitting that intellect- 
ual activity is per se a guarantee against the dan- 
gers of Romanism, is it not at the same time 
true that there is a sense in which the massive 
conservatism of the Roman Church appeals very 
powerfully to many educated minds ? Bewil- 
dered and wearied, as many of these minds are, 
by the conflicting opinions which at present 
characterize the intellectual world, is it not true 
that in some instances there exists a strong de- 
sire to cast anchor in those tranquil waters 
where scarcely a ripple disturbs the surface, and 
where " the strife of tongues is hushed in sub- 
mission to a voice which asserts its own infalli- 
bility ?' * That such instances are not very 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 153 



numerous is happily true ; but the fact that they* 
exist at all is quite sufficient to indicate to us the 
power no less than the seductiveness of Roman- 
izing influences. Inconsistent as the statement 
may appear, it is nevertheless a significant fact 
ttut the very conditions which give to the pres- 
ent age its earnestness and comprehensiveness 
are precisely the conditions which increase the 
opportunities of Romanism. If modern culture 
is characterized by an intellectual unrest and ac- 
tivity which insure us against stagnation, it is 
also characterized by a feeling of sadness which " 
the Church of Rome is not slow to perceive and 
act upon. Beneath the resoluteness and zeal 
which grapple with the mightiest problems as 
though the responsibility of their solution rested 
solely on the present age, there exist certain 
pessimistic tendencies which Rome knows per- 
fectly well how to utilize. With a strange com- 
mingling of hope and despair, modern culture 
takes up the problem of human life. It does 
not rush headlong into the pessimism of Schop- 
enhauer or Hartmann ; but it does hesitate as to 
the real value of life and the ultimate triumph 
of virtue over vice. And herein lies the danger 



r S4 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



of those encroachments of Roman Catholicism 
which, without helping the solution of the real 
difficulty, produce a state of apparent rest and 
satisfying repose. 

While we cannot shut our eyes to the fact 
that Romanism appeals principally to ignorance 
and superstition, it will not do for us to lose 
sight of the fact that modern culture^ is not in- 
vulnerable. 

Without in any way disparaging the intellect- 
ual activity of the age in which we live, it will 
not do for us to overlook the dangers of that 
reaction which this activity sometimes produces. 
While we may safely acknowledge that Roman- 
ism has its uses as a centripetal force, we must 
not allow it to so far control our ideal life as 
to substitute emasculation for energy. While 
we cannot deny that the present state of the in- 
tellectual world is one of storms and sudden 
changes, we must not allow ourselves to be mis- 
led by the idea that the apparent calmness with- 
in the Roman Church is a reliable indication of 
peace and rest. Notwithstanding appearances, 
the real truth of the matter is that under the 
Roman aspect of Christianity there exists a very 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



iS5 



much larger area of infidelity than is to be found 
under Protestantism. 

But this does not remove the danger of those 
appearances which give to the Church of Rome 
its attractiveness as a haven of rest for all who 
are weary and discouraged. Nor do we prop- 
erly understand the situation if we suppose that 
the Roman Church contents itself with pursuing 
a merely passive policy in this direction. On 
the contrary, the ablest Roman Catholic writers 
are constantly on the alert for these attacks, and 
never miss an opportunity to make them. As 
an example of this, the following language of 
Cardinal Pecci, the present Pope, may be of 
some service. Says this authority : " On the 
one hand we see multitudes robbed of every 
hope of the future, of every consolation that 
faith brings to the unfortunate ; multitudes who 
can find no compensation in the pleasures of this 
world, too poor for their desires, and too full of 
miseries and contrasts ; on the other, a small 
number of men on whom fortune smiles, who 
have not the smallest spark of Christianity in 
thir souls, and bent only on hoarding and enjoy- 
ing. We see, on the one hand, men trembling 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



with despair and who seem to have gone back 
to the savage state } on the other, obscene pleas- 
ures, dances and festivities, that excite the in- 
dignation of the poor man who is not succored, 
and which provoke the chastisement of heaven. 
These are the gains promised us ! This is what 
this open warfare against the Church promises 
us, and it is destined to throw us back again into 
the horrors of barbarism/ ' 1 

It is true this is nothing more than a general 
and sweeping indictment of modern civilization ; 
but, such as it is, it clearly indicates the course 
which the Roman Catholic Church intends to 
pursue. Knowing perfectly well that modern 
culture, being the outgrowth of Protestantism, 
will never listen to terms of compromise or sur- 
render, Roman Catholics know equally well that 
plausible appearances and the dexterous use of 
opportunities very often accomplish a great deal. 

With these facts in view it is therefore for us 
to determine how far we can allow the quality 
of our ideal to be influenced by conditions which 
lead us in the wrong direction. Growing out of 

1 " The Church and Civilization." By Cardinal Pecci, now 
Pope Leo XIII. P. O'Shea, New York. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



157 



the interdependence between the real and the 
ideal, and realizing at the same time that our 
safety depends upon our powers of intellectual 
and moral resistance against all forms of sacer- 
dotal tyranny, it is manifestly our duty to look 
this matter in the face, and make our choice ac- 
cording to the dictates of reason and sound judg- 
ment. 

In accordance with our professions of liberty, 
equality, and justice, we are bound to extend to 
the Roman Church the same privileges which we 
allow to others ; but we are not bound by either 
liberty, equality, or justice to permit Roman 
Catholicism to pursue its insidious methods of 
attack unchallenged. It is one thing to allow 
to all men the right to choose any religion they 
please ; but it is quite another thing to allow a 
church as dangerous and powerful as the Church 
of Rome to sow the seeds of dissolution and 
destruction among us without doing something 
to check the evil in its stages of incipiency. In 
regard to our ideal life particularly, let us not 
suppose that Roman Catholicism can grow in 
power without producing disastrous conse- 
quences. If as a nation we mean to follow what 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



is noble and progressive, we cannot too soon 
realize that the growth of Romanism is not con- 
ducive to the attainment of this end. As I have 
already said, there are conditions under which 
Roman Catholicism appeals very powerfully to 
the most highly gifted and intellectual, but 
this does not render it a desirable influence 
in the shaping of our ideal as a nation repre- 
senting Protestant principles and Protestant 
aims and purposes. Looking around us and 
seeing the political debasement and corruption 
by which we are surrounded, we may at times 
feel depressed and discouraged. But it will not 
do for us to abandon all faith in republican in- 
stitutions because these discouraging conditions 
unfortunately exist. It may be true that "a 
debased and irresponsible suffrage is the source 
of our troubles but in admitting this we do 
not necessarily scatter the value of republican 
institutions to the winds. It is quite possible 
that if we continue " to fling the suffrage to the 
mob/' we shall be committing an error ; but it 
is at the same time both possible and proper to 
separate the question of universal suffrage from 
the larger and more important question growing 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



J S9 



out of the intellectual and spiritual influences 
underlying our national character. Even if uni- 
versal suffrage be an admitted failure, the words 
used by Washington on his retiring from the 
Presidency still possess a profound significance. 
" This government/' said he, " the offspring of 
our choice uninfluenced and unawed, adopted 
upon full investigation and mature deliberation, 
completely free in its principles, in the distribu- 
tion of its powers uniting security with energy, 
and containing within itself a provision for its 
own amendment, has a just claim to your confi- 
dence and your support.' ' These words were 
true at the time of their utterance, eighty years 
ago ; and they are true to-day. We have grown 
older, but Ave have not outgrown the conditions 
which give them their significance. Since 
Washington's time we have passed through 
many trials, and have grown wiser through ex- 
perience ; but under all the trials and changes 
which have been witnessed by us, the great un- 
derlying fact that the nation is governed by its 
spiritual forces still remains. Unchanging and 
unchanged, this fact towers in majestic grandeur 
above the petty strifes and changes of politics. 



i6o 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



It does not .depend for its existence on the 
caprices and devices of politicians and dema- 
gogues ; it does depend for its existence on 
those irreversible laws which govern the world 
and determine the orbit of humanity. " The 
Government of the United States is no longer 
an experiment ; nor is the nation on probation. 
That the nation shall decline, and linger on in 
slow decay, or give place to some fresher stock 
and another type of civilization — all this may 
be written in the Book of Fate. But this would 
only repeat the lesson of history — that the per- 
manence of no civilization is guaranteed, either 
by political forms, by social institutions, or by 
conditions of race and territory. Unless there 
be in the people a spiritual and moral life, work- 
ing in and through their economic forms toward 
ever higher and nobler ends, and making the 
strength of justice and peace their safeguard 
against outward invasion, then nothing can keep 
a nation hale with the growth of centuries/' 1 
In the wise ordering of events the existence of 
this fair Republic seems in an especial manner 

1 " The United States as a Nation." By Joseph P. Thomp- 
son, D.D., LL.D. James R. OsgDod & Co., Boston. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



161 



to be dependent on the use we make of those 
forces which relate to our higher consciousness. 
We possess many advantages which other nations 
have not ; but we are also, from the very nature 
of our institutions, peculiarly liable to certain 
influences which other nations are in a position 
to regard with less concern. It has been said 
by Guizot that " Asia is the continent of orig- 
ination, Europe the continent of differentia- 
tions, and America the continent of reunions ; ,J 
and this perhaps expresses the fundamental 
difference which separates us from the older 
continents. In a very important sense this is 
" the continent of reunions and for this very 
reason we are liable in an especial manner to 
dangers from which Asia and Europe are in a 
measure exempt. In estimating our place in 
history it is not enough for us to dwell exclu- 
sively on the advantages which we derive from 
that freedom from prejudice and room for devel- 
opment which render Guizot 7 s remarks appli- 
cable to us. 

We must do more than this ; we must remem- 
ber that only as we cultivate a pure and lofty 
ideal can we rise to a proper appreciation of our 



l62 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



opportunities and privileges. If we are ever to 
attain that greatness which time cannot destroy, 
we can only do so by keeping before our minds 
an ideal which shall strengthen us in intellect, 
purify us in character, and bear us upward and 
onward in the development of those principles 
which are the true bases of Protestant civiliza- 
tion. Above all things let us remember that 
while we are largely indebted to Rome for the 
preservation of the beautiful, it will not do on 
this account to allow certain dangerous en- 
croachments which threaten to undermine the 
very foundations of true greatness and real pro- 
gress. As in the Prometheus, none but the 
demi-gods Strength and Force could chain the 
Titan, so, in the development of our national 
life, nothing but strength of character and clear- 
ness of purpose can save us from the dangerous 
tendencies of Romanism. 

To be really great we must be muscular in 
thought as well as in action, and instead of cul- 
tivating an ideal which appeals vaguely to our 
emotional nature, we must keep before our 
minds a distinct and living reality which shall 
have strength enough to guide and strengthen 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 163 

us in our trials and temptations, and which shall 
also be sufficiently vigorous to insure us against 
the domination of priestcraft and the evils of 
intellectual poverty. 

Keeping constantly in view the important fact 
that the progress of a nation does not depend so 
much on what it has accomplished as on the 
continuity of those processes by which it became 
progressive in the first instance, it is for us to 
maintain at all hazards the principles which give 
such grandeur and significance to the initial 
point in our history. Conscious of the responsi- 
bilities which rest upon us, it is our duty no less 
than our privilege to demonstrate to the world 
that we are not unworthy of our opportunities. 
Conscious of the importance which attaches to 
the influence of the ideal, it is for us to show 
that, notwithstanding our political corruption 
and degeneracy, there still exists in the mind 
and heart of the nation an earnestness and res- 
oluteness which will not permit the dethronement 
of those principles which give to Protestantism 
its masculineness and strength of character. 
Realizing that our healthy growth as a nation 
demands a fierce and incessant warfare against 



164 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



many vices which now threaten us with disgrace 
and possible ruin, let us also realize the supreme 
value of that intellectual and moral heroism 
which would rather lay down its life than bow 
down before an unworthy ideal. 

Should Romanism ever succeed in making a 
sufficient number of converts among the educated 
classes to give it a controlling power, we may 
indeed have fewer discords and fewer anxieties 
as to the deeper questions of human life and 
human destiny ; but it is well for us to remem- 
ber that in such an event we should exchange 
the activity of life for the stillness of death and 
the silence of the grave. Undoubtedly Protest- 
antism has produced an agitation which will in 
all probability leave the world unsettled for a 
very long time ; but surely this is better than 
submission to an ecclesiastical despotism which 
crushes the intellect and enslaves the conscience. 
Better a thousand times that we should con- 
quer through perplexity and temporary failure 
rather than to give ourselves up to an enervation 
and emasculation which strike at the foundations 
of true greatness and real progress. Whatever 
the faults and shortcomings of Protestantism 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 165 



may be, let us under all circumstances remember 
that it is Protestantism that has made us 
what we are, and it is therefore to Protest- 
antism that we must look for the hope and 
courage on which our future so largely de- 
pends. From this source, and not from Ro- 
manism, must come that pure and lofty ideal 
which shall guide us through the difficult prob- 
lems of self-government. From this source, 
and not from Romanism, must come that broad 
and comprehensive culture which shall fit us for 
our place in the vanguard of civilization, and 
which shall also encourage other nations to press 
forward in the cause of liberty and progress. 

Threatened as we are at the present time by the 
encroachments and machinations of the Roman 
Catholic Church, it is for us to show that we are 
resolute in our determination to maintain our 
Protestant privileges and the advantages which 
necessarily accompany them. No matter what our 
discouragements and perplexities may be, let us 
always remember that the muscular development 
produced by Protestantism is infinitely better 
than the emaciation and enervation inevitably 
produced by the opiates of Rome. Under the 



i66 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



shadow of Romanism we may become a peaceful 
and a plodding people ; but if we are ever to 
rise to the full measure of our possibilities, we 
need something more than the enervation and 
emasculation which are the inseparable com- 
panions of Roman Catholic ascendency. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

PASSING from the consideration of certain 
specific points in relation to Romanism and its 
influences on our institutions, it may not be 
amiss, before dismissing our subject, to examine 
in a general way the principal points at issue, at 
the same time that we endeavor more fully to 
satisfy ourselves as to the importance of the 
consequences involved. As I have attempted to 
show, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church 
is not a subject which appeals to us in the same 
manner as the growth of any other religious de- 
nomination. 

In point of fact Romanism is a vast and over- 
shadowing system, combining * * two governments 
that ill assort it is ambitious, unscrupulous, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



167 



subversive, and insidious ; and as such cannot be 
regarded otherwise than with suspicion. Know- 
ing perfectly well the value of cunning accom- 
panied by fair pretences, the Church of Rome 
carefully conceals her methods, and in a measure 
disclaims any movement against our institutions. 
But this only serves to increase the danger. 
Under any circumstances the Roman Catholic 
Church would be the natural enemy of the 
principles which underlie our theory of govern- 
ment. But when we properly understand her 
methods it is easy to see that the danger is 
largely increased, because the appearances are 
so strongly calculated to mislead us. What we 
could easily subdue in an open contest, it re- 
quires the utmost vigilance and foresight to deal 
with under conditions which place candor and 
magnanimity at a disadvantage. Applying to 
the Church of Rome the same principles which 
we apply to other forms of religion, we have cer- 
tainly acted in the only manner consistent with 
our professions as a free and enlightened nation. 
But in this respect it will not do for us to be 
deceived. What we have done is the only con- 
sistent thing that we could have done under the 



1 68 * ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



circumstances ; but it is of no use for us to con- 
ceal the fact that we have, in so doing, rendered 
possible an evil which may yet cause us to regret 
that we did not at an earlier date understand the 
real spirit of Romanism and its incompatibility 
with American institutions. It is true that even 
if we had understood Romanism better we would 
not have been warranted in adopting extreme 
measures for its repression. In addition to the 
injudiciousness of such a course, the funda- 
mental principles of our national polity would 
have been quite sufficient to prevent us from 
adopting coercive measures. 

It is one thing, however, to proclaim a war 
of persecution against a religion ; it is quite 
another thing to see to it that the Protestant 
principles which underlie our national life are 
properly protected against the encroachments of 
a church which enslaves the conscience and seeks 
to keep the world in a state of perpetual servi- 
tude under an imperious ecclesiastical despotism. 
No matter what the grandeur of its ritual 
may be, no matter how many may be the at- 
tractions which it presents to the emotional side 
of human nature, it is our imperative duty to un- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 169 

derstand that the growth of Roman Catholicism 
is incompatible with the enlargement of our in- 
terests as a nation. Without being in any way- 
narrow or bigoted, every Protestant ought to 
realize the intimate connection which exists be- 
tween the Jiberty of thought which Protestant- 
ism contends for, and the spirit of freedom which 
our government represents. Any thing which 
injures the one necessarily injures the other. In 
fact, so close is the connection, that they may be 
said to be absolutely interdependent, and in- 
capable of growth if dissociated. 

In stating this I am aware that Protestantism 
has not always been free from the spirit of intol- 
erance which characterizes the Church of Rome. 
But while we admit this, we do not set aside the 
fact that Protestantism has been the great pro- 
gressive force which has operated on the world 
during the last three hundred years. Among 
Protestants, Lutheran has been persecuted by 
Calvinist, Calvinist by Lutheran, Puritan by 
Churchman, and Churchman by Puritan. This, 
however, is only equivalent to saying that there 
have been times when Protestants did not un- 
derstand the true character of Protestantism. 



170 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



Notwithstanding these instances of narrowness 
and persecution, the genius of Protestantism has 
always been opposed to intolerance and bigotry, 
and has, by the spirit inherent in it as a system, 
gradually worked out its legitimate consequences 
by cultivating enlarged view T s in all things per- 
taining to life and religion. Not so, however, 
with the Church of Rome. In regard to the re- 
volting cruelties practised by that Church, while 
there may be some humane Roman Catholics 
who would, if they had the power, condemn the 
action taken by their Church in many instances, 
there is no ground for supposing that the author- 
ities of the Roman Church feel any compunc- 
tion for the employment of those instruments of 
torture and coercion which even at this distance 
cause us to shudder as we think of them. In- 
deed, so far removed is the feeling of the Rom- 
ish priesthood from any thing like compunction 
for past persecutions, that the oath taken by all 
who are elevated to positions of official dignity 
in that Church renders it compulsory to "per- 
secute and oppose all heretics, sckis7natics, and 
rebels, who shall stand in the way of making the 
rules of the holy fathers, the apostolic decrees, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 171 



ordinances, or disposals, reservations, provisions, 
and mandates, the foundation upon which all 
human institutions shall rest." In other words, 
although the world may grow older in wisdom 
and experience, and human opinions be subjected 
to the laws of change, Rome must ever remain 
the same, unchanging and unchangeable. 

Starting out with the imperious assumption 
that the Church of Rome is the sole repository 
of truth ; intolerance, persecution, and immo- 
bility become component parts of her system as 
naturally and inevitably as the night follows the 
day. By a dexterous mode of reasoning this 
Church endeavors to make it appear that it is 
adapted to all forms of government and all stages 
of civilization. But this is only one of its many 
attempts to accomplish by bold assertion what 
cannot be sustained by facts. 

What the Church of Rome seems to be upon 
its surface is very different from what it really is. 
Superficially considered, it has attractions which 
draw toward it many earnest and cultivated 
minds. Apparently steeped in a religious sen- 
timent which expresses the best spirit and the 
last enchantment of the middle ages, it is only 



172 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



natural that this Church should exercise a won- 
derful influence over many who prefer the gentler 
emotions of a poetic dream to the stern realities 
of life and duty. To the beautiful fascination of 
this charm no intelligent Protestant would ven- 
ture to raise an objection. It may not possess 
an equal value with that stern discipline which 
Protestants value so highly. But it does repre- 
sent one of those needs of man's emotional na- 
ture which it would be simply barbarous to un- 
dervalue. Where this feeling is the dominating 
influence over the lives of those who belong to 
the Roman Church, let no one attempt to in- 
terfere. It may be a mistaken form of religious 
expression ; but it is nevertheless a beautiful 
outgrowth of the soul's aspiration. And as 
such it ought to command the respect which it 
deserves. 

Turning, however, from these phases of the 
subject, and reverting to the real question in- 
volved in the dominating influence of the Church 
of Rome, we easily discover that when we prop- 
erly understand Roman Catholicism as a system 
it reveals an animus which clearly shows it to be 
the enemy of freedom and progress. What it 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 173 

has been in the past it still is. What it now is 
it will always be. Adapt itself to the enlarging 
conditions of human life it cannot ; resist them 
it must and will. The hopes and expectations 
which cause the great heart of humanity to 
throb with delight are the very conditions which 
tause the Church of Rome to separate herself 
more and more from the progressive tendencies 
by which she is surrounded. Uncompromising 
in her isolation, she is equally unyielding in her 
opposition to every thing modern and progres- 
sive. Every thing that conflicts with the all- 
embracing claims of the Papacy is denounced 
as emanating from " the powers of darkness* ' 
and M the gates of hell." 1 And thus it is that 
there necessarily exists a sharp and deadly an- 
tagonism between the interests of Romanism on 
the one hand and the interests of Republicanism 
on the other. 

1 " It is our belief that a most dreadful combat, a most awful 
conflict between the powers of good and evil, is in the near 
future, and that the fate of this Republic depends on the result. 
The powers of darkness which are symbolized by 'the gates 
of hell ' are angered at the steady progress of the Catholic 
Church here, and all the ingenuity of hell is at work to perfect 
plans for the legislative persecution of Catholics. — Catholic 
Herald, May 24, 1879. 



174 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



The fact that we are comparatively safe to- 
day is no evidence that we may not be in ex- 
tremis to-morrow. 

Of course, it would be folly to suppose that 
there can be such a thing as an uprising of 
Romanism without the causes of such an up- 
rising being dependent on conditions at pres- 
ent existing among us. Recognizing, as every 
intelligent person must, the inevitable sequence 
between cause and effect, such an idea is 
manifestly out of the question. But the case 
is very different when we examine the facts, 
and find that, notwithstanding our false sense 
of security, there do exist many evidences that 
Romanism is increasing its power in a very 
real and very natural manner. Instead of wait- 
ing for some special dispensation of Providence 
on which to rise into power, the Church of 
Rome makes the most of its opportunities in 
obedience to the principle that Providence gen- 
erally helps those who help themselves. While 
we pursue the delusion that Protestantism is un- 
assailable, the process of undermining our insti- 
tutions goes steadily on. Stealthily but surely 
the Roman Church presses on with its work, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



while we in the superabundance of our self-con- 
ceit look calmly on and think that no harm can 
come of it. Instead of realizing, as we ought, 
that the quality of our national life is primarily 
dependent upon the quality of the intellectual 
and moral forces which enter into it, we seem to 
think that we can enjoy an immunity from dan- 
ger because we are led by vulgar demagogues to 
believe that we are even more invulnerable than 
Achilles. 

And thus we abuse our privileges, and sink 
into an apathy which must, unless remedied, 
sooner or later produce consequences injuriously 
affecting our interests. The fact that Romanism 
is not likely to overthrow our institutions by a 
sudden attack is no excuse for our refusing to 
give the subject the attention which it ought to 
command. The fact that it seems almost im- 
possible for the average American to understand 
the importance of those undercurrents of religious 
thought which underlie national character, is 
only the greater reason why the subject ought to 
be fearlessly and forcibly presented. Besides, 
there is such definiteness and directness in the 
statements of Roman Catholic writers that it 



176 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



seems almost like insanity to postpone the dis- 
cussion any longer. 

Says one of these authorities in reference to 
this subject : " Protestantism, like the heathen 
barbarisms which Catholicity subdued, lacks the 
elements of order, because it rejects authority, 
and is necessarily incompetent to maintain real 
liberty or civilized society. Hence it is we so 
often say that if the American republic is to be 
sustained and preserved at all, it must be by the 
rejection of the principle of the Reformation and 
the acceptance of the Catholic principle by the 
American people." 1 To the most casual reader 
these words are so clear as to admit of no pos- 
sible misunderstanding. They indicate clearly 
that the Roman Catholics mean no compromise, 
while they as clearly suggest the importance of 
Protestants awaking to a sense of their duty. 
But it may be asked, Of what use are these pro- 
tests against Romanism if it is unwise as well as 
unjust to adopt extreme measures? The exist- 
ence of the question only proves, however, how 
general is the confusion in regard to some of the 
most important functions of citizenship. Fol- 

1 The Catholic World, September, 1871. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



177 



lowing the absurd idea that we cannot oppose 
any thing pertaining to our intellectual and 
spiritual life without conflicting with the pro- 
fessedly catholic spirit of our institutions, we 
seem to forget that there is a great difference be- 
tween a wise precaution and an umvise intoler- 
ance. In calling attention to the dangers in- 
volved in the growth of Romanism, I have not 
the slightest idea that we could remedy the evil 
by resorting to extreme repressive measures. In 
addition to the fact that "the reformer who 
becomes in his turn a bigot is doubly odious,' ' 
extreme measures generally defeat themselves, 
and cannot therefore be recommended. 

The case is very different, however, when we 
deal with the subject in a comprehensive spirit, 
and, in place of the narrowness of repression, 
adopt the only measures consistent with our pro- 
fessions and our place among the enlightened 
nations of the earth. 

To accomplish this it is not necessary to deny 
to Romanism certain rights which it possesses in 
common with other forms of religion ; but it is 
necessary to define our position so clearly as to 
leave no doubt concerning our intention to de- 



r 7 8 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



fend our liberties against all forms of ecclesias- 
tical tyranny and priestly domination. 

In view of the circumstances and conditions 
by which we are surrounded, there exists no 
reason why we should ever think of resorting to 
coercive measures. But because we are pre- 
cluded from pursuing this course, it does not fol- 
low that we must not apply a remedy which shall 
be less severe but more effectual. Once let us 
understand that there is an inherent antagonism 
between Romanism and Republicanism, and it 
will not require a very longtime for us to realize 
that our only proper remedy consists in the re- 
newal of Protestant energy and the robustness of 
thought which this energy produces. If our lib- 
erality permits the Church of Rome to sow the 
dragon's teeth of Cadmus among us, it will not 
do for us to meet the danger in any other man- 
ner than by an intelligent firmness, appealing to 
the higher forms of patriotism rather than to the 
lower impulses of bigotry and revenge. In this 
way we reach the consciousness of the nation, 
and, by kindling a healthy sentiment against the 
inroads of Romanism, render unnecessary those 
legislative measures which other nations have 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 179 

found it advisable to adopt. In a method such 
as this there is nothing unwise, nothing violent 
or revolutionary ; it is simply the exercise of a 
privilege which we enjoy as rational beings — a 
privilege which it may be said the exigencies of 
the present invest with the grandeur and solem- 
nity of duty. 

Acting in obedience to this principle, we sim- 
ply place ourselves in the position of an intelli- 
gent people who read in the signs of the times 
the indications of danger. Turning to the char- 
acter of the Church of Rome, and then to the 
Constitution of the United States, we find cer- 
tain differences so deeply seated and antagonistic 
in their nature as to leave no doubt as to conse- 
quences which must inevitably follow ; differences 
which, to use the language of one who has care- 
fully studied the subject, may be summed up in 
the following manner : " The Constitution of the 
United States repudiates the idea of an estab- 
lished religion ; yet the Pope tells us that'this is 
in violation of God's law, and that, by that law, 
the Roman Catholic religion should be made ex- 
clusive, and the Roman Catholic Church, acting 
alone through him, should have sovereign 



i8o 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



authority, ' not only over individuals, but nations, 
peoples, and sovereigns/ so that the whole world 
may be brought under its dominion, and be 
made to obey all the laws that he and his hier- 
archy shall choose to promulgate ! and that this 
same Church shall have power also to inflict what- 
ever penalties he shall prescribe upon all those 
who dare to violate any of these laws. The Con- 
stitution guarantees liberty of speech and of the 
press ; yet the Pope says this is * the liberty of 
perdition/ and should not be tolerated. The 
Constitution requires that all the people, and all 
the churches, shall obey the laws of the United 
States ; yet the Pope anathematizes this pro- 
vision, because it requires the Roman Catholic 
Church to pay the same measure of obedience to 
law that is paid by the Protestant churches ; and 
claims that the government shall obey him in all 
religious affairs, and in all ' secular affairs ' which 
pertain to religion and the Church, so that his will 
in all these matters shall become the law of the 
land. The Constitution subordinates all churches 
to the civil power, except in matters of faith and 
discipline ; yet the Pope declares this to be 
heresy, because God has commanded that the 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 181 

Government of the United States, and all other 
governments, shall be subordinate to the Roman 
Catholic Church. The Constitution repudiates 
all 1 royal power ' ; yet the Pope condemns this, 
and proclaims that the world must be governed 
by ' royal power, ■ in order that it may protect 
the Roman Catholic Church to the exclusion of 
all other churches ! The Constitution allows the 
free circulation of the Bible, and the right of pri- 
vate judgment in interpreting it ; yet the Pope 
denounces this, and says that the Roman Cath- 
olic Church is the only * living authority ' which 
has the right to interpret it, and that its inter- 
pretation should be the only one allowed, and 
should be protected by law, while all others 
should be condemned and disallowed.' ' 1 

I make this quotation because it presents in a 
clear and striking light some of the differences 
which separate Romanism from Republicanism, 
and also because these differences point unmis- 
takably to the necessity of our understanding 
what may happen should the Roman Catholic 
Church ever become strong enough to attempt 

1 "The Papacy and the Civil Power.' ' R. W. Thomp- 
son. Harper & Bros. 



l82 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



to put its imperious and uncompromising policy 
into practice. 

As matters now stand, it must be confessed that 
such a contingency is too remote to cause any 
serious alarm. But who shall say that, while 
there is no chance of Romanism gaining in the 
immediate future such an ascendency, there is 
not every chance that a prolonged indifference 
and sluggishness on the part of Protestants may 
not give to Rome the controlling power which 
now seems remote and unattainable ? 

Given a continuance of the opportunities 
which now exist in consequence of our drowsi- 
ness and indifference, who shall say that there 
may not come a time when the empire of eccle- 
siastical Rome shall flourish over the ruins of 
the fairest and most promising republic that 
ever existed ? I am aware that there is a 
very general feeling among us which leads us to 
believe that we need give ourselves no concern 
about our future until we have heard that 
Macaulay's New Zealander has " taken his stand 
on a broken arch of London Bridge, to sketch 
the ruins of St. Paul's. " But this is only 
another evidence of how far our judgment is in- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 



fluenced by the misleading tendencies of an ex- 
treme optimism — an optimism which prevents us 
from realizing the existence of danger because it 
happens to be latent rather than apparent. 

Forgetting that the greatness of a nation de- 
pends on the robustness of its moral character 
and the healthy circulation of its intellectual 
and spiritual life, we overlook the fact that with 
us, as with other nations, there may be condi- 
tions which are not visible on the surface, but 
which are none the less potent for good or evil. 
As an example of this it may not be amiss to 
remember that the ruin of the Roman Republic 
was brought on, not by violence, but through 
inward decay. For five hundred years it ruled 
in Italy and in the countries on the Mediterra- 
nean, and then through the process of inward 
decay it made room for the new monarchy of 
Caesar. 

Of course, the termination of the Roman Re- 
public from these causes does not imply that our 
doom is sealed, and that we shall in a compara- 
tively short time cease to exist as a nation. 
Far be it from my purpose to convey the im- 
pression that there does not exist in this repub- 



184 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM 



lie sufficient vitality to carry us through crises 
which it would have been almost impossible for 
the Roman Republic to have passed through 
successfully. But in encouraging our hopes, and 
in looking forward to the possibilities of a future 
more brilliant than our past, let us not forget 
that there is a dark side to the picture, which 
every thoughtful mind is bound to consider. In 
other words, while we look forward hopefully, 
let us always remember that nations as well as 
individuals contain a principle of decay which 
must sooner or later bring all things to an end. 

Naturally enough this thought is distasteful to 
most persons ; but it will not do to dismiss it on 
that account. Nor is there any valid reason 
why the thought should discourage us or dimin- 
ish our interest in the progressive conditions by 
which we are surrounded. Instead of this, the 
consciousness that we are liable to such a princi- 
ple of decay ought rather to stimulate us in our 
appreciation of every thing that helps our vital- 
ity, at the same time that it ought to teach us 
to look with suspicion on every thing which 
tends to reduce the quantity and quality of our 
vital force. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 85 



If it is true that we cannot separate ourselves 
from those elements of decay which render it 
inevitable that 

M Every thing that grows 
Holds in perfection but a little moment, 
And this huge state presenteth nought but shows, 
Whereon the stars in silent influence comment 

it is no less true that we are the possessors of 
certain elements of immortality which can defy 
the ravages of time and the conditions of change. 
If it is true that ages must change, and nations 
must rise and fall, it is equally true that certain 
conditions will always remain the same amidst 
the ever-varying phenomena of life. If it is 
true that in view of the transitory nature of all 
things human, it would be manifestly absurd to 
suppose that this republic can exist without 
passing through crises and changes which bear 
very closely on the time and manner of our dis- 
solution, it is quite as true that our future is 
largely in our own hands. 

That such crises and changes must come, ex- 
perience has already shown. But the fact of 
their existence does not in any way prevent 
us from carefully protecting those principles 
of liberty and progress on which the measure 



ROMAN CATHOLICISM. 



of our national greatness primarily depends. On 
the contrary, the existence of these crucial tests 
serves the more fully to convince us of the im- 
portance of those principles of liberty and prog- 
ress which Protestant civilization contends for ; — 
principles which are also the elements of our 
national life most likely to resist the encroach- 
ments of decay, and at the same time most 
likely to keep us healthy and vigorous in our 
march through those future ages when century 
shall have succeeded to century, and when 
nations yet unborn shall rise and flourish over 
the ruins of many of those that now exist. 



INDEX. 



In the Index, the Roman numerals, except in titles, mean the chap- 
ters ; and the Arabic figures, the pages. 



Aims of Romanism 6, 61 

Alexander III 66 

Alexandria . 41 

America, the continent of re- 
unions 161 

Anglo-Saxon race, 73 ; traditions 50 

Antichrist 107 

Antonines, The 41 

Apostolical and I nfallible Author- 
ity of the Pope quoted 62 

Armada, The Spanish 134 

Arnold, Matthew 139 

Asia, the continent of origina- 
tion 161 

Asiatic and European civiliza- 
tions 80 

Augustine 55 

Babylon 96 

Babylonish captivity 66 

Bacon 130 

Balmes, Rev. J 86 

Baptists 7, 14 

Bigotry 8, 95 

Bismarck ... 99 

Boniface VIII 26,66 

Borromeo, Charles 102, 103 

Bossuet 114 

Brazil, Romanism in 127 

Brownson, 93 ; Essays quoted. . . 23 

Bruno, Giordano 92 

Bryant quoted 37 

Buckle quoted 88 

Cadmus 178 

Caesar .57, 183 

Csesarism and Romanism 56, 57 

Csesars, The 56 

Calvinists 169 

Canada. Romanists in 127 

Cardinal McClosky 9 

Cardinal Manning, 79 ; quoted 

18, 110 

Cardinal Pecci quoted 155 

Carrol 114 

Catholic. See Romish, Roman 
Catholic, or Papal. 



Catholic Herald, The 173 

Catholicism. See Romanism. 
Catholics. See Romanists. 
Catholic World quoted, The 

20, 64, 176 

Cause and effect 32, 43 

Cavour 115 

Census of Romanists in the United 

States 13, 14, 15 

Chance 32, 146 

Character of Pius IX 122 

Charles II 134 

Cheverus 114 

Christian Rome 55 

Christianity, Roman aspect of... 154 
Church and Civilization quoted, 

The 156 

Churches in the United States 

13, 14, IS 

Church of England 132, 135 

Church of Rome 153, 157, 167 

Church, The Romish, not a de- 
nomination 166 

Church supremacy 23, 24 

Claims of Romanism 7 

Clement XIV 116 

Clericalism 51 

Colleges and schools in theUnited 

States 13, 14, 15 

Concluding Remarks, VII 166 

Conjecture, Protestantism an 

ocean of 132 

Consciousness 51, 147 

Copernicus 41 

Cormenin quoted 25, 96 

Coxe quoted, Bishop 114, 116 

Culture, Modern.., 153 

Curci, Father ,57, 58, 59 

Dante 103 

Dark Ages, Romanism duriner. . . 89 

Decline of the Roman Republic. 183 

Demigod Force, The 162 

Demigod Strength, The 162 

Despotism 95 

Differentiations, Europe the con- 
tinent of 161 



i88 



INDEX. 



Diocletian 98 

Dollinger quoted 110 

Dragon's teeth 178 

Dynamic and static forces 76 

Eagle and peacock 67 

Ecclesiastical petticoats 132 

Ecclesiastical tyranny 178 

Edinburgh 126 

Elements of National Life, II. . . 30 

Elizabeth 134 

Elizabethan age, The 129, 130 

Emerson quoted 47 

England 121, 127, 135 

England, Church of. 132, 135, 136 

Englan.1, History of, quoted 127 

England, Romanism in 12 

Stuart times in 134 

English Literature, Taine's 60 

Episcopal Church 132 

Episcopalians 7, 14 

Erasmus. 125 

Essays and Reviews quoted. 13, 14, 15 

Euphrates, The 41 

European and Asiatic civiliza- 
tion 80 

Europe, the continent of differen- 
tiations 161 

Fate, The Book of 160 

Forces, Static and dynamic 76 

Forces, Spiritual 31, 45 

Force, the demigod 162 

Fortuitous circumstance 32, 146 

Fra Farina . 103 

France 121 

Francis of Assist 102, 103 

French Republic 51 

Frederick Barbarossa 67 

Froude quoted 41, 74 

Galileo 92 

Gallicanism 23, 113 

Gambetta quoted 51 

Gates of hell 173 

Germany 97 

Germany, Romanism in 126 

Gibbon 42 

Gladstone quoted 44 

Gladstone, Hugh Miller Thomp- 
son on 9 

Greek civilization 42 

Gregory VII., 25, 26 ; quoted 25 

Guizot quoted •••70, 161 

Hartmann 153 

Herald, The New York 21 

Heresiarchs ... 93 

Heroism, Intellectual and Moral. 164 
History of England quoted 127 



I History of Spanish Literature 

quoted 129 

History, Lesson of 160 

Hodge, Dr 122 

Holland 126 

Holland, Romanism in. . . . 12 

Hooker 130 

Humanists, The 125 

Humbert, King 115 

Hydraulics and economy 47 

Ideal, Our National, VI 137, 151 

Ideal and the Real 143 

Ideal of Art 143 

Ideal vs. the Intellectual, The.. 139 

Ideal, Importance of. 150, 163 

Impeccability 109 

Imperium super imperium 108 

Infallibility 6, 18, 108, no, 152 

Influences, Spiritual 31 

Innocents, The.... 66 

Inquisition, The 92, 93 

Inquisition Letters on the Span- 
ish, quoted 93 

Intellectual z>s. the ideal, The. . . 139 
Interdependence of the ideal and 

the intellectual 141, 157 

Ireland 121 

Ireland, Romanism in 126 

Irish Sea, The 41 

Italy 183 

Italy and Her Church quoted. . . 9 
Italy, Romanism in 126 

Janus quoted 26 

Jesuitism 114, 115, 116 

Jesuits, The 58, 62, 63, 99, 114 

John, King of England 67 

Kenrick 115 

Knox, John 121 

Law ... 32, 38, 43, 46, 148 

Le Maistre , 93, 94 

Leonardo da Vinci 98 

Leo XIII 82, in, 112, 113, 155 

Policy of 112 

Letters on the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion quoted 93 

Liberalism and the Church 93 

Liberty of perdition 180 

Literature, History of Spanish, 

quoted 129 

London Quarterly Review quot- 
ed 133 

Luther 97 

Lutherans 169 

M acaulay quoted ... 126, 182 

McClosky, Cardinal 9 



INDEX. 



189 



Malaria, Ecclesiastical 73 

Mammon 151 

Manning, Cardinal, 79 ; quoted 

18, no 

Man, the hunter of truth 140 

Marcus Aurelius 42 

Mascuhneness of Protestantism. 163 

Mediaivalism 69, 87 

Mediterranean Sea 183 

Methodists 7, 14 

Mexico, Romanism, in. 127 

Michael Angelo 98 

Middle Ages, Characteristics of. 60 
Middle Ages, Romanism during. 89 

Milman quoted 66 

Milton quoted 7, 119 

Modern Civilization and Roman 

Catholicism, IV 76 

Music of humanity, The still sad 143 

Napoleon quoted. . . , 71 

National ideals 137 

National Ideals, Our, VI 137 

National Life, Elements of, II... 30 

Nations, Spirit of 35 

Nature of the Conflict between 

Romanism and Protestantism, V. 105 

Nemesis 36, 43 

Newman 79 

New Zealander sketching St. 

Paul's 182 

Nicholas 1 95 

North American Review quoted. 45 

Oath to persecute 170 

Ocean of conjecture 135 

Optimism 40, 44, 87, 183 

Orbis Romanus 107 

Origination, Asia the continent 

of ... 161 

Our National Ideal, and its Rela- 
tions to Romanism and Protes- 
tantism, VI 137 

Pagan Rome 55 

Papacy and the civil power, The. 179 
Patriotism subordinate to Roman- 
ism 21 

Peacock and eagle 67 

Pebble changing stream 33 

Pecci, Cardinal, 82 ; quoted 155 

Persecutions, Romish 170 

Peru, Romanism in 127 

Pessimism 87, 139, 153 

Pessimistic tendencies 153 

Petticoats, Ecclesiastical. 132 

Pius IX., 24, 25, 26, 58, 78, 81, 

107, 108, 109, in, 122 
Plain Talk about the Protestant- 
ism of To-day, quoted 23, 93 



Plato 139 

Policy of Leo XIII xza 

Pope and God, The. . .20, 21, 25, 

. 6 3> I Q7» 109 
Popery. See Romanism. 

Popery, Milton on 7, ng 

Powers of darkness.... 173 

Presbyterians 7, 14 

Preston 79 

Priestly domination 178 

Priests in the United States.. 13, 14, 15 

Princeton Review, The 115, 120 

Principles.. .36, 135, 142, 146, 163, 185 

Procrustean methods 82 

Prometheus, The 162 

Protestantism Compared with 

Catholicity, quoted 86 

Protestantism, Dissensions of 169 

Masculine element of 163 

over-confident 174 

vs. Romanism. . ..15, 16, 17, V., 105 
Protestantism and National 

Greatness 135 

Providence 71 

Prussia 97 

Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals 26 

Puritan , 169 

Raleigh 130 

Raphael 98 

Real and ideal 138, 144 

Reformation, The.. 44, 70, 94, 97, 130 
Reunions, America the continent 

of 161 

Rhodes, M. J 107 

Roman Catholic and Modern 

Civilization, IV 76 

Roman Catholicism. See Roman- 
ism and Popery. 

Roman civilization 41, 43 

Romanism, a vast system 166 

clandestine 167 

in Brazil 127 

in Canada 127 

in England; in Europe 16, 17 

in Germany 126 

in Holland 12 

in Italy 126 

in Mexico 127 

in middle ages 89 

in Peru 127 

in Spain 88, 126, 129 

in Switzerland 12, 126 

in the United States. 13, 14, 15, 127 
increasing constantly in power. 174 
vs. Protestantism. ... 15, 16, 17, 105 

vs. Republicanism 173, 178, 179 

will survive Rome 115 

Romanism, Spirit of, III 53 



INDEX. 



Romanism. See also Roman Ca- 
tholicism, Popery, and Rome. 

Roman Republic's decline 183 

Rome, 42, 43, 162 ; Pagan and 
Christian, 55 ; unchangeable, 

170, 173 

Rome. See also Romanism, Ro- 
man Catholicism, and Popery. 

Romish Church not a denomina- 
tion 166 

Romish persecutions 170 

St. Paul's, New Zealander 

sketching 182 

St. Peter 66 

St. Peter's chair 111 

Satan 96 

Schopenhauer 153 

Scotland 126 

Segur, Mgr., quoted 23, 93 

Self-government, Problem of 40 

Shakspeare, 130; quoted 27 

Slavery 104 

and Romanism 49 

Sodom and Gomorrah 96 

Souls of nations 35 

Spain, 88 ; Romanism in. .88, 126, 129 

Spalding, Bishop, 79 ; quoted 13 

Spanish Armada 134 

Spanish Inquisition, Letters on 

the, quoted. 93 

Spanish Literature, History of, 

quoted 129 

Spenser 130 

Spirit of nations 35 

Spirit of Romanism, III 53 

Spiritual above material 150 

Spiritual foices. ; 4^ 

govern the nation.. 159 

in forming character 30 

Statement of Subject, 1 5 

Static and dynamic forces 76 

Statistics of Romanism in the 

United States 13, 14, 15 

Strength, The demigod 163 



Stuart times in England 134 

Subject, Statement of, 1 5 

Suffrage, Debased and irrespon- 
sible 158 

to the mob 158 

Universal , 158 

Summary, VII 166 

Sweet reasonableness 85 

Switzerland, Romanism in.... 12, 126 
Syllabus of the Principal Errors 

of our Time, quoted 81 

Systematic Theology, quoted .. . 122 

Tablet, The New York, quoted 192 

Taine quoted 60, 129, 143 

Tennyson quoted 85 

Thompson, Hugh Miller, quoted. 9 

Joseph P 98, 160 

R W 179 

Ticknor quoted 129 

Titan, The 162 

Trajan 42 

Treaty of Union 121 

Tribune, The New York 109 

Truth, Man the hunter of 140 

What is ? 140 

Tyranny 95, 129, 131, 157 

Ultramontanism. .24, 28, 97, 98, 

108, in, 112, 135 
United States as a Nation, quoted 

98, 160 

Romanism in 13,127 

Vatican, The 123 

Vatican Council and its Defini- 
tions, quoted 18, 110 

Vaticanism 9, 98, 123 

Victor Emmanuel 115 

Vox et praeterea nihil 80 

Washington 115, 159 

What is truth ? 140 

William, Emperor of Germany.. 98 
Wininger quoted 62 



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